FARMERS could reap the rewards of Brexit, Bury North MP David Nuttall has suggested in Parliament.

The European Union currently pays farmers £2.5 billion a year for making efforts to improve the environment.

Farmers also get access to the EU market, in which half all British food and farming products are sold.

While some farmers have expressed concern that those benefits will be in doubt when Britain leaves the EU, Mr Nuttall said there was a tremendous opportunity.

In Parliament last Thursday, Mr Nuttall asked Rural Affairs Minister George Eustice: “Does the Minister agree that leaving the EU will provide us with a tremendous opportunity to develop a tailor-made package of measures designed to support and help UK farmers?

“In fact, there is nothing to stop usstarting to working on putting a package together right now.”

Mr Eustice replied: “Mr Nuttall makes a very important point.

“I can reassure him that, while no decisions will be made until there is a new prime minister with a new Cabinet, we are working on options that might be to present to the new prime minister.”

Mr Eustice and Mr Nuttall both supported Brexit.

During the campaign, Mr Eustice said: “We would do far better as a country if we ended Europe’s supremacy of and shaped new fresh-thinking policies that really delivery for our agriculture.”

He added that, due to Brexit, the British government will have an extra £2 billion billion a year to spend on farming and the environment.

National Farmers’ Union president Meurig Raymond said: “We want to see action being taken to ensure farming in this country has a thriving future outside of the EU.

“The impact of Brexit on the farming sector is huge; trade agreements, access to labour, farm support and regulation are all crucial to agriculture’s future. We’re now presented with a blank canvas for a domestic agricultural policy which is a chance for Parliament to shape a prosperous future for farming in this country.”

“Farming cannot be sidelined if the economy is important to this government.”