“No, I don’t envisage tariffs on Irish beef coming into the UK. I expect an all-encompassing free trade agreement. I have spoken to many of the EU agriculture ministers and that is their view too.” I was I must admit taken aback by UK secretary of state Andrea Leadsom’s positive view on the agricultural future after Britain leaves the EU. I had gone over to London for a briefing by the secretary of state on Monday at which she laid out her policy for dealing with Britain leaving the EU and the effect on UK farming.

She said she was speaking under some constraint as the full Tory manifesto would not be published for a few days. Nevertheless, she was much more forthright than I expected. She said she had five strands to her policy for UK agriculture.

1Trade: She maintained there was a growing world demand for high-quality UK food. She identified countries such as China and Germany and she promised that the UK government would back UK food exports.

2Productivity and competitiveness: With Britain leaving the EU, there would be support for and a commitment to training, skills and a commitment to scientific innovation and development (£160m has already been allocated). She also promised “we will make sure that farmers and growers will have seasonal workers as they are needed”.

3 Sustainability: Even in such a crowded island as Britain, 70% of the land is farmed and she pledged support for biodiversity and she inferred help for vulnerable areas to keep them stocked and cared for.

4Promotion: Her pledge was to “promote trusted British brands and our unique animal welfare standards.” She assured her audience that the British government would not allow imports to “undermine our standards”.

5Resilience: Under this heading she included culling of badgers to eradicate Bovine TB and special help with flood defences. But, during a capably handled question session, she assured her audience she would be guided by the science when dealing with developments in areas such as plant protection. On the broad support system she said they were carrying out detailed studies on EU direct payments. She recognised the vulnerability, especially of the sheep sector and said farmers could rest assured there would be no cliff edge in support being withdrawn overnight. On the Irish case she said it was mentioned in every letter and statement on Brexit. She said it was clear it was going to be resolved but she added enigmatically that the means of resolution are not clear.