MP claims farmers lose out

Farmers in Shropshire are losing out because the Government has failed to improve a subsidy system, a county MP said today.

Philip Dunne, MP for Ludlow, criticised the Government for failing to improve delivery of Single Farm Payment (SFP) to England's farmers.

Shadow Agriculture Minister Bill Wiggin, who is Leominster's MP, has made similar criticism. Mr Dunne said: "Last year DEFRA and the Rural Payments Agency failed to deliver SFP for 2005 to England's farmers as promised. This caused significant financial hardship.

"The Government was forced to provide for up to a £305 million fine from the European Commission. Yet the Prime Minister promoted the Secretary of State responsible, Margaret Beckett, to the Foreign Office."

Mr Dunne said Tony Blair had written to current DEFRA boss David Miliband in May 2006 instructing him "to ensure that farmers receive their single payment as soon as possible, and that we improve our capacity to deliver payments on time in future years."

However, Mr Dunne said Mr Miliband had not succeeded in improving the delivery of the SFP.

He added: "In addition to DEFRA and the RPA falling behind with delivering the 2006 SFP, they have still to resolve 22,000 of the 2005 SFP claims that are currently under review. Several of these outstanding claims are for my constituents."

Mr Dunne said he signed an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to improve its capacity to deliver the Single Farm Payment on time.