Tory MP slates union
Tory MP slates union
THE NFU is too close to the government and to Brussels, Conservative MP Christopher Gill has warned.
Speaking at a fringe meeting at the NFU agm Mr Gill said Britain could argue its case for farming better from outside the EU.
The Ludlow MP said the EU regime was undemocratic, bureaucratic and corrupt, and issues such as red tape which the NFU bemoan originate with the EU.
He said: "Its time to break the spell of the NFU being in thrall of the government and the government in turn being in thrall of the EU."
Earlier Mr Gill criticised large farmers who should have been taking a lead in opposing EU policy for "taking their subsidies and keeping quiet".
Fellow speaker James Gladstone, author of the book Crisis in the Countryside said that £7.7bn could be saved each year if agriculture was "repatriated" from the EU.
"Bringing farming home would pay whopping dividends," he insisted.