Anecdotal evidence points to a looming labour crunch for the fruit and vegetable sector – worth £1.2bn a year – if the new prime minister triggers article 50 to leave the EU and targets restrictions on immigration as part of a new deal with Brussels. One grower member in Kent has a permanent workforce of 800 people – all migrants from EU countries.
Farmers forecast food price rises and job losses in life after the EU | Environment | The Guardian
The chatter in the main food tent reflected worries about food prices going up, instability caused by the loss of £3bn of annual EU subsidies for arable farmers and access to the single market – and even redundancies in the 40,000 strong agricultural workforce in Norfolk. But others were hopeful that being out of Europe could ultimately make the farming industry stronger.
Farmers forecast food price rises and job losses in life after the EU | Environment | The Guardian
Gove’s doubts were ventilated a little too publicly two years ago when, seemingly after drink had been taken, Gove told a Rupert Murdoch dinner party: “Boris is incapable of focusing on serious issues and has no gravitas. He isn’t a team player and plays to the gallery the whole time.” He also said he was incapable of taking serious decisions. Gove, it seems, was happy to go along with Boris the vote-winner, but after his side won the referendum, the game changed. Johnson had served his purpose.
The inside story of the most infamous, treacherous week in Tory history
Maybe Johnson knew that sorting out the UK’s relationship with the EU required an application and an attention to detail that was beyond him, or certainly was something he would not relish, and that the crown could wait. Last weekend he reportedly approached Theresa May, saying he would pull out of the leadership race if she would promise to stand down before the 2020 election. She said no. Who knows when Michael Gove got wind of the suggestion? It will have done yet more to confirm that Johnson's heart was not in it. Yet his heart has always been in becoming PM. Can this really be the end of that particular story?
The inside story of the most infamous, treacherous week in Tory history
Boris Johnson had spent Saturday playing cricket with his old friend Earl Spencer at Althorp House. Late on Saturday he had spoken to Gove, and agreed that the latter should be Chancellor if Boris was to become PM. The pair also discussed making a joint appearance on TV to pacify the nervous markets, but decided against it. Instead, the next day Boris held a barbecue at his home near Thame in Oxfordshire, attended by Gove and two aides. Instead of the brainstorming session they expected, what they found was, as they later described it, a “boozy, shambolic, disorganised and ill-disciplined” encounter. The Johnson camp felt Gove was jumping the gun and making too many early demands about cabinet jobs, but to Gove’s people there was little evidence of Johnson - like Gove, exhausted by the campaign - hitting the ground running, or having even done much thinking about the thicket of decisions that confront the government. That was No 10’s job, said his supporters. Sausage, anyone?
The inside story of the most infamous, treacherous week in Tory history