One of Theresa May’s new environment ministers has been accused by campaigners of a conflict of interest over tens of thousands of pounds he receives annually in EU farming subsidies.

Lord Gardiner is parliamentary under secretary of state and the House of Lords spokesperson for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which will be heavily involved in plans for replacing EU farming support.

But he is a partner in a family farm in Buckinghamshire, which received nearly £49,000 in 2015 in such payments and campaigners claim he has a personal interest in how the subsidy system post-Brexit will operate.

One of the key tasks of the ministerial team at Defra, which is led by failed Tory leadership candidate and prominent Vote Leave supporter Andrea Leadsom, will be to draw up a new subsidy scheme to replace the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP). British farmers and landowners currently receive up to €3bn (£2.5bn) a year.

Both Leadsom and fellow environment minister, George Eustice – who also supported the Leave campaign – promised farmers before the referendum that a post-Brexit Britain would match the level of the payments, which made up 55% of the average farmer’s income in 2014.

Eustice also owns a farm in Cornwall with family members, which receives just over £2,000 each year under the CAP.



John Sauven, Greenpeace UK’s executive director, said: “This certainly raises questions about a potential conflict of interest. Any minister who could profit financially from their own policies has a responsibility to provide the highest levels of transparency and scrutiny in their decision-making.

“And as two Defra ministers, Lord Gardiner and George Eustice MP, have long been recipients of subsidies under the EU’s common agricultural policy, their role in reforming these subsidies post-Brexit is a textbook example.”

Asked if Gardiner would be recused from discussions and making ministerial statements on future farming subsidies, an official said that all environment ministers would be involved in decisions on farming subsidies.



A spokeswoman said: “The secretary of state has been very clear that we all now have an unparalleled opportunity to make sure our policies are delivering for Britain and to grow our world-leading food and farming industry.

“She has underlined the need for continuity for farmers and together with her ministerial team is looking forward to working with industry and the public to develop new proposals that provide tailored support for our agricultural industry as we leave the EU.”

The future of farming subsidies will be hotly contested and controversial, with the National Farmers Union already consulting members on them and conservationists lobbying for protections for nature in the system to be strengthened.



Dame Helen Ghosh, the director general of the National Trust – which owns 250,000 hectares of farmed land and currently receives £11m a year in CAP payments – said on Thursday that the EU system is “broken” and Brexit offers an opportunity to design a new system based on environment protection.

As well as the level of payments, one question is whether subsidies will continue to be based on the acres of land a farmer owns, or switch to how much a farmer produces.



Gardiner, who told fellow Lords recently that he was looking forward to sitting atop his farm’s combine harvester and cutting barley this summer, is a former chair of a local hunt and the former deputy chief executive of the Countryside Alliance which campaigns for the Hunting Act to be repealed.

Leadsom told the alliance during the referendum campaign last month that: “I have made it clear that I will guarantee the current level of support under a UK agricultural policy.”

Gardiner’s responsibilities as parliamentary under secretary of state are listed as rural affairs, biosecurity, animal health, commercial projects, landscape issues and climate adaptation.

Analysis published by Greenpeace this week showed that several prominent Brexiters have received farm subsidies and can be expected to receive them under any future subsidy regime, including JCB owner, Lord Bamford; vice president of Conservatives for Britain, Viscount Ridley; and Sir James Dyson.



Sauven said: “The UK now has a unique opportunity to reshape our farming sector for the common good. Instead of continuing to give handouts to wealthy landowners just for owning land, the reforms led by Defra should be used to help struggling farmers, protect biodiversity, reduce the risk of flooding and restore carbon in our land to help combat climate change.”