Lowe tells Defra chief "you are deluding yourselves" in clash over farm funding

Rupert Lowe clashed with Defra's most senior civil servant at a Public Accounts Committee hearing on UK food supply resilience on Thursday 15th October.

Mr Lowe, the Restore Britain MP for Great Yarmouth, questioned permanent secretary Paul Kissack, who gave evidence alongside Emily Miles, director general for food, farming and biosecurity, and Helen Dallas, interim deputy director for food preparedness and response, according to Farmers Weekly.

Funding row

Declaring that he had farmed arable and sheep in the Cotswolds for 40 years, Mr Lowe said he had himself missed out on funding under the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), whose second 2026 application window closed within hours. He called the process a "charade" and asked whether it showed good long-term management.

Mr Kissack replied that he recognised the window "has caused huge levels of irritation, frustration, anger and stress", but said demand from farmers "far exceeded the amount of money available", despite the pot being increased by 40% in the weeks beforehand. According to Farmers Weekly, he told MPs: "If the committee has a suggestion as to what I do about that, I'm all ears, but I have to administer the budget I have got."

"Behind the curve"

Mr Lowe cited a finding that Defra was less confident about the ability of businesses to withstand shocks without government intervention over the next five to 10 years, and said the department was "massively behind the curve". He described the countryside as being in "a state of manufactured crisis", listing inheritance tax changes to agricultural property relief, a fertiliser tax, bans on some sprays, planning rules, energy costs he blamed on net zero, and an ageing workforce.

Mr Kissack defended the department, saying it was "getting an enormous number of things right" and that domestic food production had risen over 10 years, Farmers Weekly reported. "I think you are deluding yourselves," Mr Lowe responded.

Asked by Mr Lowe whether he farmed, Mr Kissack said: "No, I do not." He said he lived in a farming community and had picked potatoes growing up.

Earlier hearing

Earlier in the week, at the committee's hearing on Monday 12th October, Mr Lowe accused ministers of "doing absolutely everything in their power to dissuade people" from planting crops, Farmers Weekly reported, citing tax rises, the coming carbon border levy on fertiliser and high energy costs.

Posting clips of the exchange on X, Mr Lowe wrote that British farming was "on the brink of total collapse" and that he was fed up with evasive answers from politicians and civil servants. He added: "MPs must start holding these civil servants to account - that is exactly what I am attempting to do."

Image: Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons