Victoria Atkins

Climate change is happening, nature is in decline and sticking with the failing status-quo is a choice.

Only the @Conservatives are choosing to take the bold action required to bring back common sense and real change for our countryside and coast. 🧵

The Full English - as dictated by Andy Burnham and the EU.

Labour is serving up our food laws to the EU on a silver platter.

We will have no say, no influence and no veto over the rules the EU sets.

Why can’t the Environment Secretary explain what she’s announcing?

What powers will these water councils have?

How much will these councils cost the taxpayer or bill payer?

Key questions we need answers to.

Smokey bacon crisps matter, @angelaeagle, because your government is signing away control of our food laws to the EU.

We will have no say, no influence and no veto over the rules they set - as the question by @StigAbell demonstrates.

Rural crime has a devastating impact on our rural businesses and communities.

Already struggling with rising fuel, input costs and Labour’s higher taxes, the last thing our farmers and business owners need is the constant worry of stolen tools, machinery or livestock attacks.

These real concerns were expressed to me and Shadow Home Secretary @CPhilpOfficial by business owners and farmers at the NFU in Horncastle. We heard firsthand just how difficult enforcement is across Lincolnshire, where only four to six rural crime officers are assigned to our vast county.

That is why the Conservatives are prepared to make the necessary welfare cuts to fund 10,000 additional police officers, including 1,000 officers specifically dedicated to rural crime who understand the unique challenges our countryside faces every day and have published a plan to tackle rural crime.

But Government also needs to bring common sense and democratic accountability back to environmental policing.

For too long, unelected government bodies such as Natural England and the Environment Agency have failed to take a common sense approach to deliver for our countryside and coast. That’s why the Conservatives will abolish them – bringing the powers that work back under direct ministerial responsibility and eliminate the ones that fail to deliver.

To crack down on these fly-tippers, polluters and rural criminals, we need enforcement with serious teeth. Before entering politics, I prosecuted organised crime gangs. I know the lengths they will go to, I know what it takes and I am ready to lead this fight.

That’s why we will transfer core enforcement functions to a new Environmental Crime and Enforcement Authority, run jointly by DEFRA and the Home Office, rooted in common sense.

These plans were built on conversations with rural business owners and farmers like these in Horncastle, listening directly to their worries and frustrations. They need practical action, stronger enforcement and a government that listens to the realities of rural life and takes these criminals head on, before it’s too late.

Only the @Conservatives have a plan to secure our countryside, tackle rural crime and get Britain working again.