Camborne and Redruth General Election candidates on Brexit, farming and fishing

Here we ask the candidates standing in Camborne and Redruth for their views on two subjects – Brexit and farming and fishing. The answers from those who responded are below.

Brexit

George Eustice – Conservatives

We need to get Brexit done. For over three years, politicians in Westminster have been arguing about how to deliver on the referendum result. We’ve been able to say what we don’t want and even voted against a deal three times.

As someone who campaigned to leave and sought to compromise in order to achieve Brexit, it’s been a frustrating time. Since becoming Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has shown huge determination to get Brexit done and taken a stand against those factions in parliament who want to block democracy.

It was initially said that Boris Johnson wouldn’t get a new deal but he did. That he wouldn’t get rid of the backstop, but he did. That the EU would never change the withdrawal agreement, but it did. We now need to get Brexit done so that we can get on with the country’s priorities. A vote for anyone but the Conservatives is a vote for more dither and delay.

Paul Farmer – Labour

The Conservatives’ disastrous handling of Brexit has left Britain bitterly divided. Both Boris Johnson’s Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have taken extreme positions on Brexit, effectively rendering themselves single-issue parties, and neither position will do anything to heal the divisions in our country. In fact, each party is trying to benefit in this election from exploiting division.

The Conservatives’ Brexit could lead to £500 million per week of NHS money ending up in the pockets of big US drugs companies.

The Liberal Democrats’ position is not only undemocratic but will make Boris Johnson’s disastrous Brexit more likely.

Labour will give our people the final say on Brexit and bring our divided country together. We will negotiate a real deal, with a customs union and access to the single market, within three months. Within six months of being elected we will put that deal to a public vote: leave on those terms or remain in the EU.

Karen La Borde – Green

The Green Party has been clear from the start that it wants a People’s Vote. For me this should happen as soon as possible.

Brexit has sucked all the oxygen from politics whilst climate and ecological breakdown barrels down the road. Labour have laboured to provide a pantomime performance of a do they, don’t they? Whilst the Tories hide the truth behind a false wall of unity, leading the country into chaos to protect its own party. And bless the Lib Dems who want to bury their heads in the sands and forget this nasty business happened and revoke Article 50. Not so democratic.

‘Take back control’ was the clarion call of the ‘leave’ campaign to people suffering austerity, low wages and lack of political trust. The problem was never Europe but the failure of a government to understand the travesty of its own economic policies and the centralisation of power in Westminster.

The Green Party has a plan to return REAL control to local communities and would establish a Cornish assembly with power over local planning, NHS priorities, policing, taxation, etc. It would make large corporations pay more tax and prioritise local businesses to bring dignity back to local communities.

Florence MacDonald – Liberal Democrat

Sadly, it is clear that any form of Brexit will be damaging to Cornish families and communities. The pound has already lost 16 per cent of its value, GDP has fallen since the referendum and median wages are down, particularly for those in their 20s and 30s. Add to this that in Cornwall, the average wage is 23 per cent lower than the UK average and it is not hard to see that more families will be thrust into poverty. There will be more vacancies on the NHS that we cannot fill, and with the loss of freedom of movement, we will also lose a significant proportion of farm labourers, construction workers and our adult social care team, who are truly, angels in disguise.

I could not stand for election in this constituency without fighting for what is best for our communities. We need to stop Brexit to protect Cornish jobs, protect our NHS, protect families and protect our high environment and animal welfare standards. It was an irresponsible referendum which has led us to this point, with the country divided and parliament at a standstill. It’s time to stop, learn from our mistakes and invest in our economy.

Farming and fishing

George Eustice – Conservative

The referendum result was a clear statement from the public that they wanted to take back control of their waters and agriculture systems, and that is what we will do.

We will leave the antiquated Common Agricultural Policy and we will regain full sovereignty of our waters giving politicians in Westminster the choice about who will have access to them. We will implement a system that rewards farmers to farm their land in a way that is good for the health of their soils, good for the quality of the water courses flowing through their land, good for farmland birds and pollinators and good for enhanced animal welfare outcomes.

We also want to reward farmers based on the value of what they deliver, not, as with some EU schemes, simply compensate them for the money they have lost by acting to try to help the environment.

As a sovereign country, we will also control access to our own waters by ending current automatic rights for EU vessels to fish in UK waters. In future, access to fish in UK waters will be a matter for the UK to negotiate. The new legislation will also preserve UK vessels’ right to fish across the four zones of UK waters and create a consistent approach to managing any access for foreign vessels provided for in international agreements.

Paul Farmer – Labour

Boris Johnson’s new Brexit deal is the worst of all worlds for the fishing industry, especially in the waters of the western approaches. Cornish fishermen will not receive any additional quotas and other EU vessels will continue to fish in UK waters. This is something that Labour will address when we renegotiate a new fairer deal with the EU.

Our land must be managed in a way that enables rich and complex ecosystems to thrive. Healthy soils, oceans and woodland are vital for our food security, for mitigating and preventing flooding, supporting pollinators and biodiversity more broadly, and storing carbon.

Labour will reconfigure funds for farming and fishing to support sustainable practices, smaller traders, local economies and community benefits and embed and enhance in policy the responsibility for farmers to conserve, enhance and create safe habitats for birds, insects and other wild animals, and encourage the growth of wildflowers.

We will issue new guidance to end the use of antibiotics for routine, preventative purposes with farm animals and establish a science innovation fund to promote the most sustainable forms of farming and fishing, with support earmarked for our small-scale fishing fleet.

Karen La Borde – Green Party

The ecological collapse we see around us such as the loss of wildlife (60 per cent) and insect populations (75 per cent) as well as 90 per cent of large fish being removed from the oceans is a direct consequence of how we farm, use the land and exploit our seas.

Market forces, government policies and a focus on economic growth and profit is threatening the continued existence of us and the planet.

The Green Party will encourage sustainable agriculture by scrapping subsidies which encourage intensive agriculture or industrial scale animal production. The Green Party would halt the excessive use of pesticides in farming, banning glyphosate as well as discouraging the use of artificial fertilisers. Subsidies would be introduced to support farmers to transition to practices which protect our soils and water courses, increase biodiversity and improves animal welfare.

For the seas, the Green Party will commit to making at least 30 per cent of UK domestic waters into fully protected marine areas by 2030 which cannot be trawled or fished to allow stocks to recover.

Lastly and most importantly, with temperatures set to rise between 1.8C degrees and 4C degrees, it is going to become increasingly difficult to farm predictably and for marine life to survive in warmer waters.

Florence MacDonald – Liberal Democrat

Despite having an MP who is the minister for fishing and farming, there is nothing on offer to bring them hope.

We need to work on reforming the Common Fisheries Policy and work with the fishing industry to address the inequality of quota distribution and the selling of quotas to fishing companies from other countries. Boris’ deal offers nothing for the Cornish fishing industry other than more of the same with NO say and no indication of what will be in place after the transitional period.

The National Farmers Union have been clear that a no deal Brexit would be catastrophic for farmers and without basic pay for farmers, it is likely that 50 per cent of farms will not survive. We must stop Brexit and reform the Common Agricultural Policy. We need to move from direct subsidies to public money for public goods. We also need to provide alternative routes into farming for young people, including long term land tenancies to keep the industry alive. The Liberal Democrats will defend and keep the high environmental and animal welfare standards that we currently have.