Braverman leaves fruit farmers in a jam

Responding to the Home Secretary's statement on seasonal workers and the response from NFU Scotland’s Horticulture Chair Iain Brown, a soft fruit and vegetable grower from Fife in which he said that “Many Scottish soft fruit and vegetable growers have invested time and money in trying to source a local work force, but a survey of our members failed to find any farm that had a positive response" and warned of "significant naivety" on the part of the UK government, North East Fife MSP Willie Rennie said:

"The Home Secretary is completely out of touch with the needs of Scottish farming. It's like she thinks raspberries just materialise on the shelves of Waitrose.

"In my Fife constituency produce is rotting before it can reach the shelves because farms cannot get the staff they need.

"The Conservatives' anti-migrant rhetoric has made the UK less appealing to workers and their anti-migrant policies have made it far harder for businesses to get the staff they need. The Home Secretary may be keen to pull up the drawbridge, but farmers are not.

"The Conservatives have left our farmers in a jam. Scottish Liberal Democrats will continue to push for measures that support the industry by cutting red tape and tackling these labour shortages."