Today in the Scottish Parliament, Mid-Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser called on Richard Lochhead, the SNP Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, to formally apologise to farmers who will not receive their CAP payments before the end of the year.
Back in February the Scottish Government promised farmers that payments would be doled out before the New Year, however now only a quarter of farmers will receive just 70% of their funding.
As a result the Conservative MSP called on Government Ministers to pay 90% of farmers 90% of their payment before mid-January as requested by the National Farming Union. The Government have refused to do so and Richard Lochhead went as far as to claim that the “vast majority” of farmers backed him.
Opposition politicians have been predicting scenarios like this ever since it became clear that the disastrous new £180 million IT system would not deliver a smooth transition to the reformed CAP.
Commenting Murdo Fraser MSP said:
“First of all the Cabinet Secretary needs to come to Parliament with an official statement to explain what exactly has gone wrong and what is being done to fix it.
“Coming to Parliament today and explaining that the farmers he speaks to are happy with his stewardship is absolute nonsense and will do little to help the vast majority who are left facing Christmas without vital CAP payments.
“The SNP’s whole handling of this new payment regime has been nothing short of shambolic, the online applications were a disaster which as a result has had a knock on impact on payments.
“The Scottish Government needs to front up and take responsibility for problems that have been all of their own making. It would help if there were a degree of contrition from Ministers rather than the spin they are currently deploying.”