The Agricultural Question
Prime Minister:
"I'm sorry, my good man, I can do nothing for you"
LibDem Farm Minister Axes Agric Wages Board Days Before Xmas - Plunging Farm Workers Into Poverty
Huw Irranca-Davies MP, Labour’s Shadow Farming Minister,
responding to the amendment tabled in the House of Lords to abolish the
Agricultural Wages Board, said:
“It is typical that the Government sneaked out this announcement just
hours before Parliament shuts down for Christmas, ignoring the strong
views against abolition expressed in the consultation, and with no
regard to the will of the Welsh Government. The Government admits that
the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board will take £240 million out
of the pockets of farm workers and rural communities over the next ten years.
“David Cameron’s out of touch government has delivered a bitter blow
to the rural economy just before Christmas and to thousands of low-paid
farm workers who will be worried about their pay falling. People in the
countryside need a One Nation plan to create jobs and growth, not this
Government’s approach that leaves our lowest paid workers out of
pocket.”
Mike Walker Country Standard said:
"David Heath LibDem Farm Minister (Somerton & Frome) once stated that the Agricultural Wages Board was vital now he his happy to go along with the Coalition of Millionaires and drive rural workers into poverty"
"Its ironic that a Liberal Farm Minister established the Agricultural Wages Board and over one hundred years later the next LibDem Farm Minister axes it"
"The AWB acted as bench mark for many rural workers jobs and was a de facto rural living wage"
"Labour's Shadow Farming Minister Huw Irranca-Davies MP, has worked tirelessly to retain the AWB, he recently secured with cross party
and NFU support a Grocery Code Adjudicator with real power to protect farmers from the excessive power of the supermarkets, it's a real shame that cross party and NFU ethical approach is ignored when it comes to paying farm workers a living
wage"