The level of direct support available to UK agriculture – including Northern Ireland – could fall by as much as 35% between 2020 and 2022, according to Neil Parish MP. He is the current chair of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Parliamentary Committee in London.

“The current EU basic payment system remains in place until 2020,” he said.

“After that, London will want to link its support measures for agriculture to issues such as environmental standards and conservation.

Delivering cheap food is not an argument that goes down well with British consumers, when it comes to garnering public support for agriculture.

The Member of Parliament for Tiverton and Honiton in Devon made these comments while visiting Northern Ireland earlier this week. He said that the Barnett formula would be looked at when it comes to deciding the size of the farm support budget that each region of the UK receives post-Brexit.

“But it won’t be the only issue on the table. Certainly, London will not be out to demonise Northern Ireland when it comes to sorting this matter out,” he said.

Parish indicated that each of the UK’s regional assemblies would have a fair degree of autonomy when it comes to deciding what form of support measures would be made available to farmers within their catchment areas, once the UK formally leaves the EU.

“If there is no agreement reached on re-establishing an Executive at Stormont, then the Secretary of State will represent the interests of agriculture and food in Northern Ireland when it comes to sorting out the needs of these industries moving forward.”

Parish foresees the UK reaching a trade agreement with the EU27, which will provide the farming and food industries with reasonable access to Europe’s single market post-Brexit.

He also suggested that farming and food may well be treated as special cases, in the context of free-trade deals agreed by the UK with other countries; once the formal EU withdrawal negotiations had been completed.

Equivalence of standards must be established as an agreed criterion within such negotiations.

“If this were not to be the case then the likes of Brazil could flood the UK with cheap beef and, in so doing, destroy the livestock industry of regions such as Northern Ireland,” he said.