As the SNP’s DEFRA Spokesperson at Westminster, the issue with Labour’s block on a bespoke Scottish Visa for overseas workers to address labour shortages in sectors like fishing remains a real problem for the industry, despite Keir Starmer promising me at Prime Minister Questions that his party wants to tackle this problem. It is this and the allocation of funds from the UK Government’s £360 million Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund to Scottish coastal communities that I will be pressing them on when I return to the House.
Meanwhile, with some farmers now mounting a legal challenge to the lack of consultation on Labour’s reforms to Inheritance Tax, Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief, and the National Farming Union of Scotland’s support for the EFRA Committee’s recommendation to the Treasury to pause these changes, the UK Government may need to revisit their refusal to listen to family farms at the thin end of this policy.
