THE MP for the South Cotswolds has described farmers as ‘the guardians of our land’.

Dr Roz Savage, who tabled the Climate and Nature Bill, has urged Labour Environment Secretary Steve Reed to ‘heed the voices of our farmers’.

Dr Savage said: “We need to work together to create a future where British agriculture is strong, resilient and sustainable - a future where our farmers can produce the food we need while nurturing the land we love.”

The Liberal Democrat MP was speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, November 11.

The CAN Bill would require the UK to hit climate and nature targets and give the Secretary of State a duty to implement a strategy to achieve those targets.

It would also create a Climate and Nature Assembly to advise the Secretary of State in creating this strategy, as well as provide duties to the Committee on Climate Change and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee concerning the strategy and targets.

Pointing to her private member’s bill, Dr Savage said: “Our farmers are not just food-producers.

“They are the guardians of our land, regenerating soil, restoring wildlife and enhancing biodiversity.

“Many people think that the climate crisis is the cause of the nature crisis, but many people believe rightly, I think, that it is the loss of nature that is contributing to the climate crisis.”

Dr Savage had earlier told MPs: “The recent Budget proposals have cast a long shadow over our farming communities, adding to an already-vulnerable situation.

“The changes to agricultural property relief threaten to force the sale of farms that have been in the same family for generations.”