Caroline Spelman gets Defra top job

Louise Bateman

14th May 2010

Tory MP Caroline Spelman has been appointed Secretary of the State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the new Con-Dem coalition.

Spelman was formerly Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, but has a many years experience in the agricultural sector.

She worked for six years in the sugar beet industry and was sugar beet commodity secretary for the National Farmers Union (NFU) in the 1980s. She was research fellow for the Centre for European Agricultural Studies at the University of Kent and has written a book on biofuels. She co-owns Spelman Cormack & Associates, a food and biotechnology business, with her husband.

Top of Spelman’s 'to do’ list in her new job will be reform of the common agricultural policy. European landowners and conservationists are calling for biodiversity and other environmental issues to be placed at the heart of the reform. Spelman will also have to find ways to meet the growing food crisis at the same time as getting UK farmers to grow more sustainably.

There was little in Wednesday’s coalition agreement between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats shedding light on future Defra policy, but it did say the two parties wanted to see measures to promote green spaces and wildlife corridors in order to halt the loss of habitats.

The NFU yesterday welcomed Spelman’s appointment. "The Tories have promised to put the 'f’, farming, back into Defra and I know that message has gone down well with farmers up and down the country," said NFU President Peter Kendall.

While acknowledging that Defra would be subject to budgetary cuts, Kendall went on to say: "For us, protecting the competitiveness of the food and farming sector is paramount. The challenge of ensuring food supplies for the UK and the rest of the world is simply too great and too serious for it to be put at risk. We will be looking very closely at emerging policy statements to make sure that does not happen and that any cuts which have to be made actually go towards enhancing the ability of farmers and growers to compete."

Minister of State James Paice MP, another Conservative who while in opposition was Shadow Minister of Agriculture, joins Spelman at Defra.