Tackle food security crisis by stopping cuts to Cumbrian farmers, MP tells Foreign Secretary

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has urged the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to stop the planned cuts to farm payments to help alleviate the food security crisis created by the invasion of Ukraine.

Tim also asked the Secretary of State to reverse the cuts made by this Government to the Foreign Aid budget in order to help poorer countries that will have less access to food.

Speaking during a statement in Parliament on Ukraine, Tim said: "The Foreign Secretary made an excellent point earlier about food security. There is a prospect of this evil invasion of Ukraine impacting on the global humanitarian situation and also affecting us domestically when it comes to food supply.

"Would she consider two urgent actions in that case?

"Is now not the right time to restore the amount of aid we give to 0.7% of GDP?

"Is it not also right to halt the foolish progressive reduction in the basic payment scheme for our farmers, so that we can maintain our ability to feed ourselves?

Responding, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: "There are many things we can do to improve food supply. I am certainly seeing what we can do through our aid budget, and we are looking at our aid strategy at the moment.

"I completely agree with the honourable gentleman that this is a real issue. It is recognised by our friends globally as a real issue and we are working on it together, but we also need to look at what we can do to support countries in areas such as trade.

"Increasing trade with like-minded countries is another way of making sure that food supplies are able to flow, and that is something we are also looking at."