On Friday, I joined the multi award winning, family run South Brockwells Farm in Little Horsted seeing their educational facility, farm shop hearing about their great work with children and young people and to listen to their challenges around planning and environmental health. I know after hearing from local farmers in East Grinstead, Uckfield and the villages, just how damaging Labour's terrible budget is. This quickly followed joining the annual farming conference at the South of England Showground in Ardingly where this issue ahead of the farming lobby in Westminster was front and centre.
One farmer, I’ve heard from flagging food security concerns is Cllr Michael Lunn, a family farm owner who runs the Uckfield Farmers Market and works so hard, over 24/7 across 365 days a year-they’ re on call for their animals and are really worried about the future. I asked Michael what the realities of what the farm tax means - “It’s a disaster. Whoever came up with this idea has not done their calculations correctly, they don’t understand farming, the challenges of farming, and how hard it is, and I tell you now–the farming community are 100% united. We’re fed up and this is the end of British agriculture as we know it.” I'd like to encourage everyone to sign the ‘StopTheFarmTax’ petition on my website. We all need to take action together now.
Meanwhile as Shadow Minister for Women, I’ve raised questions in Parliament, as it’s clear now working women who will also pay of this budget of broken promises, that increases employers’ national insurance contributions making working people worse off and affecting childcare settings. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said single-parent families—80% of them headed by women—will, on average, be £1,000 worse off by October2029. Unsurprisingly, described by Martin Lewis as an “unfair” penalty to single-parent households.
Finally, PubAid Community Hero Awards is back - a brilliant opportunity to nominate your local who works extra hard supporting the whole community. If you're a resident of East Grinstead, Uckfield and the villages, please do email me with your outstanding local pub nomination.
