Farmers will be given bigger public subsidies for taking better care of their livestock under Government plans for a “green Brexit”, Michael Gove will say today.

The Environment secretary will say that improved animal welfare standards will be one of the “public goods” which will attract more Government funding.

Landowners who encouraged people to be more “connected” to the countryside and increased understanding of farming would also benefit from more funds.

Mr Gove’s department has been waging a policy war with Labour over areas of environmental policy like fox hunting and animal sentience for several months.

Last week Labour published a wide-ranging strategy for boosting animal welfare in the UK, including enshrining animal sentience in law, reviewing animal testing and banning foie gras.

Mr Gove is now drawing up plans to set out how the Government will spend the £3billion which farmers currently receive annually from the EU in subsidies after Brexit. A command paper on agriculture will be published by the end of next month.

In his speech today to the National Farming Union’s annual conference in Birmingham, Mr Gove will say: “I believe investing in higher animal welfare standards and investing in improved training and education for those in agriculture and food production are clear public goods.