NFU president: farmers are pawns in Brexit negotiations

Butchers at work at a meat processing plant in the UK. British farmers are worried about cheap imports post-Brexit. Photograph: Richard J Greenman/Alamy

The president of the National Farmers’ Union has accused the government of using British food producers as a “pawn” in post-Brexit trade deals.

Minette Batters, who has led the organisation representing British farmers since 2018, said “the most prized food market in the world” had been “handed over for nothing” by ministers, in their rush to sign wide-ranging free-trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand after the UK’s departure from the European Union.