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£6m Help Over FMD Vanishes
WALES - A UK government pledge to award Welsh farming £6.5m to cope with foot-and-mouth has disappeared into thin air, it was claimed last night.According to the Scottish government, the UK Treasury was also poised to award £8.1m of additional funding to Scotland and £12.5m to England.
The Scots claimed to have in their possession documents confirming the commitment by the Chancellor Alistair Darling.
But no mention of the money was made on Monday when Defra secretary Hilary Benn outlined details of a £12.5m support package for farmers in England.
Defra – not the Treasury – provided the £12.5m and the devolved administrations have also been left to fund emergency support measures out of their own budgets.
Scotland yesterday claimed the “new money” commitment was withdrawn when Prime Minister Gordon Brown decided against holding an early general election.
The Farmers’ Union of Wales immediately declared that agriculture had been “sold down the river”.
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