Political big hitters visit Cornwall

With two weeks until the election, two big politicians from opposing parties visited Cornwall today to talk about two very different issues of concern to voters in the Duchy – anti-social behavior and farming.

The morning began with Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron leaving his home in North Cornwall to visit Trevaskis Farm in Connor Downs – which is run by Giles Eustice, brother of Camborne and Redruth MP George Eustice, who is standing down at the election. The former premier also met the 27-year-old Conservative candidate for the constituency, Connor Donnithorne.

In West Cornwall, to discuss farming issues, Lord Cameron promised the Tories “have farmers’ backs” and also defended the badger cull, which he introduced as prime minister.

He said: “I think it’s a very clear choice in this election when it comes to agriculture. You can see a very full farming manifesto from the Tories and in it the commitment of a billion pounds more in the farming budget in the next Parliament; you can see the deregulation commitment to allow permitted development to open farm shops; you can see the extra money going into innovative practices.

“You see from the Lib Dems, for example, a commitment to cut beef and milk by 30% – which could lead to the closure of 17,000 farms. From Labour, almost nothing – only 87 words about agriculture, so I think when it comes to agriculture, we have the farmers’ backs.

“We know there are a lot of problems and difficulties, but we are investing money and support and, crucially, for the first time, we will legislate on a food security target for our country. Along with border security, energy security and national security, food security is an important issue.”

He was asked about the bovine tuberculosis that is crippling many small family farms and causing not only financial problems but also emotional distress. Labor says it will end “inefficient badger culling”.

“I think they are dead wrong,” said Lord Cameron. “I was the prime minister who introduced the badger cull and I remember how intense the arguments were, but I think the evidence is clear that it has worked. We haven’t eradicated bovine TB, but we’ve certainly reduced it and badger culling has played its part. I think it’s important to keep this as one of a series of measures that we’re taking.

“Only the Tories were prepared to take the tough decisions necessary to protect British farmers. I live near a beef farmer and it’s heartbreaking when a herd gets infected. In politics, you have to be prepared to make unpopular decisions. We knew culling the badger would be unpopular and upset a lot of people, but it was the right thing to do because ultimately we need to help our farmers have healthy cattle.”

Does he think Westcountry Tory MPs will keep their seats?

“They’re a tough choice, there’s no doubt about that. We had Covid which hit the economy, we had the war in Ukraine which raised prices. What Rishi has done is to bring the economy back to growth and bring inflation back to 2% and I think that is proof of what an effective leader he is.

“What I would say to everyone here in the Westcountry, we don’t know if these polls are right or wrong. The one thing we do know is that if you go out on the 4th of July and vote for one of your hardworking Tory MPs, they will be in Parliament supporting you, supporting our farmers, supporting our fishermen, supporting supporting the importance of housing for locals, supporting the importance of the tourism industry.

“If you want the likes of Connor Donnithorne to represent you – he’s a local boy, born and bred in Cornwall. I met him when he was seven and he told me he wanted to think about politics, and I’m very happy that 20 years later he’s doing well, already being a very effective councillor.”

A few hours later and Yvette Cooper, shadow secretary of state for the Home Department, was meeting local community groups at the Cornwall Neighborhoods For Change building in Redruth to discuss anti-social behavior with Labour’s parliamentary candidate, Perran Moon.

She told us: “I’m here to talk to families – people who have suffered terrible domestic abuse and crime; how people have often been let down by the criminal justice system and why it needs to change. Labor has a plan to change the way the police respond to domestic abuse and violence against women and girls across the board.”

Ms Cooper also visited Truro where she spoke about anti-social behavior with businesses, residents and Cornwall Council’s anti-social behavior officers. “We talked about the persistent shoplifting and street drinking and how it can end up intimidating people. This is happening on high streets in the city center and across the country.

“I don’t see neighborhood police in Truro anymore. In Devon and Cornwall, neighborhood policing has been cut by around a third over the past eight years. That’s not good enough. We need to bring back neighborhood policing and tackle this anti-social behaviour, not just in Truro but across the South West.”

She spoke of Labour’s plan to put 13,000 extra neighborhood police and PCSOs back on our streets, “particularly in our town centres, town centers and local communities and we would fund it through an Independent Trust Police who have found that if you bring together Procurement across 43 different forces, we can make major savings which we can then put back into frontline policing.”

How confident is Ms Cooper that she will be this country’s next Home Secretary?

“We have to win every vote. I was speaking to a gentleman in Truro today who said he was a Tory voter all his life but now voted Labor because he said it was time for a change and he was fed up with all the chaos. Change will only come if people vote for it.”

Mr Moon added that anti-social behavior was a “driver of a lot of fear for people” in his constituency. “It is a challenge and it is one that we, as a Labor government, should meet head on. The party is talking about 13,000 more officers in the UK – we want our fair share here. We will also look at how we can revitalize our high streets with policies to attract back the businesses we need to towns like Camborne, Redruth and Hayle.”

A third political visit took place today. Steve Reed, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, visited Fentongollan Farm and Lake Argal with Truro and Falmouth Labor candidate Jayne Kirkham to discuss clean water projects and the importance of nature in the area with members of Cornwall Wildlife Trust and local. carp fishermen.