New British Prime Minster, Boris Johnson hasn’t had much of a role in British farming or agricultural policy, but is now in a position where his decisions will shape the future prosperity of the industry, not just in the UK but Ireland as well. He was declared the new leader of the Conservative Party on Tuesday, by default this also makes him the new British Prime Minister.

Ultimately it is his Brexit approach that will impact on farmers both in Ireland and the UK. The issues with cross border trade on the island of Ireland are well documented and finding a solution that satisfies his Brexit ambition alongside maintaining the status quo for trade is the big challenge.

So far it has been impossible to devise a Brexit that preserves this balance and Johnson's commitment to the UK's exit from the EU by 31 October will be a cause of concern for farmers in Ireland and the UK.

Policies

During the hustings in the leadership campaign, Johnson created concern among farmers in the north of Ireland with his announcement to Scottish farmers a couple of weeks ago that he would give them an extra £30m in funding.

This relates to the distribution of extra CAP money since 2013 to assist with the move to area based payments. Because of its relatively large land mass relative to output, Scotland’s rate per hectare is one of the lowest in the EU, a point of grievance amongst Scottish farmers. Northern Ireland on the other hand because of its high output has a relatively high rate per hectare.

The concern for the Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) is that any extra money allotted to Scotland would cause Northern Ireland would lose out. The UFU sought clarity on the source of extra money for Scotish farming but nothing has been forthcoming from Johnson’s team so far.

While the result was announced on Tuesday, Johnson formally takes over on Wednesday afternoon. He will then name his cabinet, which is expected to include many hard line Brexiteers. Then the countdown to 31 October is on.

An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar tweeted to say that he is keen to meet the new British Prime Minister to discuss Brexit as soon as possible.

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