The Government is expected to announce #50m of extra help for Britain's beleaguered farmers within days, it emerged last night after farmers' leaders pressed their case with Tony Blair.
''The Prime Minister said he was aware of the acute income loss and effects this was having on the industry and ministers are considering how to address this issue very urgently,'' said National Farmers' Union leader Ben Gill after the hour-long meeting with Blair and Agriculture Minister Nick Brown at Westminster.
The Prime Minister discussed long term problems facing farmers across all sectors, said Gill.
But the real purpose of the talks was to impress on Blair the seriousness of the situation.
The #50m will help farmers threatened with ruin due to plummeting prices, the BSE crisis and the high value of sterling.
''We are selling our stock at way below what it costs to produce. Farmers are struggling to survive,'' said Mr Gill.
He said he told the Prime Minister the retail price index had gone up 60% and food price inflation by 40% in the last 11 years, but farm gate prices had fallen by 5%.
''The Prime Minister accepted the situation and the need,'' he added.
The lifting of the beef export ban due to the BSE crisis for England, Wales and Scotland, will be discussed by agriculture ministers in Brussels on November 23 and 24.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture said tonight: ''Mr Brown is actively working on a package of aid for farmers, as he has said before.
''But there has been no formal announcement and no figures.
''Talk of figures is speculation at this stage.
''We would talk about figures once the announcement is made.''
But Government sources indicated that the cash was likely to be found through the EU's mechanism for compensating farmers for the high level of the pound against other European currencies.
Half of any compensation would have to be paid by the UK Treasury and the other half from European funds.
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