Environment Secretary visits Sussex to champion farming

Barclay spent the day across the County, where he spoke at a Live Q&A entitled The Future of Rural Farming run by the Conservative Rural Forum. He was joined by the MP for Hastings and Rye, Sally-Ann Hart, the MP for Bexhill and Battle, Huw Merriman and the Conservative parliamentary candidate for the Weald of Kent, Katie Lam.

At the event, chaired by Hugh Broom, former host of the Farmers Weekly podcast, the Secretary of State emphasised that food security and protecting the environment were ‘two sides of the same coin’. He spoke of importance of rural businesses to the wider national economy, and the fortitude of rural communities. He also highlighted his commitment to cutting down on bureaucracy faced by farmers.

Alongside the event, which was attended by 60 local farmers and other local stakeholders in Peasmarsh, Barclay campaigned in Hastings with Sally-Ann Hart, as well as visit a local farm with Katie Lam in Wittersham.

Mr Barclay said: "I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Sussex and Kent on Thursday, speaking with local farmers and residents about how we can make rural communities even better places to live.

“In an unstable world, the role that farmers and rural businesses more generally play cannot be understated. It was a privilege to speak to so many of them and understand what more the government can do to make sure that they can deliver food security for our country.

“Our overarching priority is to put food security and food production really at the heart of our approach”.