GOVERNMENT 'will not compromise' on safeguarding food and animal welfare standards, was prime minister Boris Johnson's pledge to Britain's farmers.

In a short pre-recorded video message played at the virtual National Farmers' Union (NFU) conference on Tuesday, Mr Johnson made the commitment in a bid to ease growing concerns that standards could be eroded.

Farming leaders and opposition parties fear the government could cave into pressure to downgrade standards in order to secure trade deals with countries such as the US. Alarm over potential chlorinated chicken exports or hormone-treated beef from the US has sparked controversy. But Mr Johnson said in a short pre-recorded video message to the conference the government was committed to "high quality produce to a high standard."

Defra Secretary, George Eustice, on the subject of Direct Payments said: "Rather than masking poor profitability with a subsidy we should address the causes of poor profitability. Too many farmers find themselves in the position of being price takers with powerful processors or other purchasers pushing all of the risk down to the farmer. The Agriculture Act gives us new powers to create statutory codes and introduce other regulation to bring transparency and fairness in the supply chain. Now we will start with a statutory code in the dairy sector but also intend to use these powers to bring fairness and market transparency in other sectors too."

Mr Eustice also promised to ‘respect the result’ of the AHDB horticulture ballot and remove the current mandatory turnover levy. But, he added, the Government was exploring a range of different options to ensure the elements of AHDB work which are valued by growers could continue in the future.