This letter was sent to the Wilts and Glos Standard:

Dear Editor

WILTSHIRE tenant farmer Minette Batters, who is also the the President of the NFU had this to say at a conference last week.

“I make no apology for saying leaving the EU without a deal would be a catastrophe for British Farming. It has been suggested that this is just scaremongering, that no deal will be manageable.

"So I want to take a moment to explain why with 38 days until Brexit, no deal is the stuff of nightmares. Secretary of State in a recent radio interview you warned of the dangers of leaving the EU without a deal.

"You said: ‘Winter is coming’. Well for me as a farmer it’s starting to feel cold. It is absolutely shocking that famers and wider businesses are in this position. Now Britain was told, even assured, that a trade deal would be the easiest in history.

"That Britain holds all the cards in the negotiations. Well conference, in a few weeks time, if there isn’t a deal with the EU, high export tariffs could effectively mean we have no market for four and a half million lambs.

"A no deal Brexit could decimate those farms up and down Britain, from our uplands to the Welsh mountains, to the rolling hills and the English lowlands."

When this edition is published, we will have just 30 days to this catastrophe. I ask the good farmers of North Wiltshire to join us and say No! to No Deal, and No! to our most vocal local protagonist of ‘No Deal’ James Gray MP.

Let’s see the back of him and a long awaited return to good old fashioned liberal sense and sensibility in our Constituency.

Cllr Dr Brian Mathew

Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for North Wiltshire and Councillor for Box and Colerne