County Chair Andrew Sewell, York East member David Horsley and NFU External Affairs Manager Neeve McGinty met York Outer MP Luke Charters and Scarborough and Whitby MP Alison Hume on Tuesday 10 June.
At the meeting, which was organised by County Adviser Poppy Smith, they raised concerns over Inheritance Tax and highlighted the NFU鈥檚 clawback as an alternative to proposed changes.
The next subject under discussion was the withdrawal of SFI24 and escalated loss of BPS and the implications for the industry. A number of other topics were also covered including trade, profitability, planning and flooding.聽
An invitation to attend the NFU stands at the Great Yorkshire Show and Driffield Show was extended to both MPs, along with small scale meetings on farm with members in their constituencies.
Reach out to your MP
David Horsley said: 鈥淥ur visit to Westminster allowed an opportunity to be able to talk face-to-face with a couple of our local elected representatives to explain how government policies and wider economic trends are impacting the farming industry.
鈥淎lison Hume did listen and appeared willing to engage further in the future and Luke Charters did pick up on our points about the impacts to the UK bioethanol industry following the recent US trade deal.
鈥淒espite the meetings being relatively brief we hopefully persuaded those two MPs to be willing to meet us in future 聽 and have more in-depth discussions about key topics.
鈥淲e need to be sat at the table having conversations with our local MPs about the issues that are impacting farms and rural businesses. So any opportunities for one-to-one meetings need to be maximised 鈥� even if it does involve travelling to London.鈥�
Andrew Sewell, York East County Chair, added: 鈥淲e had a conversation and we opened up the door. Steve Reed says he wants more profitability, we all agree on that 鈥� we all want that. But at the moment it feels like we are taking a kicking from every direction.
鈥淲e need members to keep writing to their MPs to tell them their stories. If you鈥檙e affected by the proposed IHT changes, SFI closure, or BPS, you must reach out to your MP.聽
鈥淚 encourage all members to keep banging the drum 鈥� we have strength in numbers. Let鈥檚 make sure our voices are heard,鈥� he said.