Confusion over CAP exit

Theresa May has said that Britain will leave the Common Agricultural Policy at the same time as it leaves the EU in March 2019. She said, 'The relationship we have on [the CAP] continuing through the implementation period with the European Union will be part of the negotiation of that period, which will start very soon.'

She added: 'Leaving the CFP and leaving the CAP gives us the opportunity to actually introduce arrangements that work for the United Kingdom.' What these arrangements might be remains unclear, as is the issue of whether the basic payment would cease in 2019.

Michael Barnier has said that Britain would remain in the CAP in the transition period. In practice the political priority, certainly for Michael Gove, might be getting out of the Common Fisheries Policy. In any event there is now more uncertainty about the future of British farming.