Scots Farm Minister Richard Lochhead has accused the UK Government of not showing enough commitment to agriculture.
The minister yesterday questioned why Liz Truss was the fifth Defra secretary of state he had worked with since taking up his post in 2007.
“I think it is unfortunate that Defra has such a big churn of ministers. Each time I have to familiarise and brief the next minister who goes into post,” said Mr Lochhead at the Oxford Farming Conference.
“I don’t think that is good for agriculture in Scotland and the rest of the UK. If it (farming) is a priority, I think it should be more of a stable portfolio.”
Igniting an old argument, the minister once more called for his inclusion in EU farm policy meetings and said there was no formal agreement in place to establish the UK position ahead of these meetings.
His concerns were shot down by the UK Farm Minister, George Eustice, who argued that a UK minister needed to represent the UK Government.
“I go there (Europe) to represent all parts of the UK; it’s much harder for a devolved minister to represent as much of the UK.”
Continuing his attack on his colleagues south of the border, Mr Lochhead blamed a poor budget allocation for Scotland’s complex Cap reform.
“Scotland has the lowest budget allocations per hectare in the UK in both pillars and lower than every other member state,” said Mr Lochhead.
“That’s a key reason why in Scotland we were forced to add a little more complexity to an already overly complex Cap – because we had to make every effort to ensure we targeted our limited budgets to the right places.”