Tony Blair was attacked by the Tories for trying to blame farmers for the foot and mouth crisis. The Tories claimed that he and his ministers were trying to distance themselves from responsibility to gain an advantage in the run-up to the general election. Tim Yeo, the shadow minister of agriculture, said: ‘They are trying to draw attention away from the fact that they did not get on top of this epidemic fast enough.’ The Tory attack followed reports in which an anonymous Cabinet minister blamed ‘dodgy farmers’ for spreading the disease rapidly by moving sheep around the country in order to claim European Union subsidies. The report angered farmers’ leaders, who said sheep traders were doing nothing illegal. Since the epidemic began there had been rumours of fraudulent sheep movements throughout the country to enable farmers to claim EU subsidy payments. Under EU rules, a farmer can claim a subsidy of about £16 for each ewe retained on his holding for at least 100 days from the beginning of February. These are mainly pregnant ewes. But most movements of sheep are mature lambs ready for slaughter. Many of these animals would be destined for export, others would end up as meat in the domestic market. It is normal practice for farmers to buy these lambs in a market and, if they do not sell them for slaughter immediately, to re-sell them later through other markets for a higher price. The practice has been magnified in recent years by the growth in the sheep population. Ian Gardiner, deputy director general of the National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales, said: ‘We have no evidence of large-scale fraudulent movements of sheep.’

Source: Daily Telegraph, 26 March 2001