Exiting his role as secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs today, Owen Paterson can look forward to spending the next 10 months sniping from the backbenches.
His successor Liz Truss, meanwhile, can look forward to a potentially challenging tenure at Defra.
Truss has said she is keen to tackle “the important issues facing our rural communities”, including “championing British food, protecting people from flooding and improving the environment”.
But one obstacle to success in her new role could be time.
The general election looks to be all set for 7 May 2015, which means parliament will be dissolved on 30 March, giving Truss no more than nine months to make her mark.
The Countryside Alliance executive chairman Barney White-Spunner today described it “an impossible role”. He said Defra had “fundamental issues”, a questionable ability to create policy, and was in need of a “root and branch review”.
Putting aside the fact the Conservatives might lose the election, Defra’s new minister could have her hands full in placating often diametrically opposed sections of society.
Paterson certainly polarised opinion. His views on genetically modified food, climate change and the plan to cull badgers drew the ire of the environmental lobby, but he also achieved strong support from the farming industry, with the NFU particularly fulsome in its praise today.
Truss will have to decide whether to press ahead with policies that could potentially harm Tory chances at the ballot box next May, or postpone them until the next government is formed, which could also provoke criticism.
She will have to consider whether to proceed with the roll-out of the badger cull, amid strong opposition from some quarters and the recent launching of a judicial review by The Badger Trust.
Also on the agenda will be the politically sensitive implementation of tough new EU rules on the pre-slaughter stunning of animals. The new rules could have implications for halal certification, and were suspended at the eleventh hour on 16 May when Defra stated it needed to give “a complicated issue” more consideration.
The Elliott Review, commissioned by Defra post-Horsegate to investigate the state of the UK food industry, also hangs over the department. Professor Chris Elliott published his interim report in December, and warned the UK food industry and consumers remained at risk from criminals, with only a dramatic change in industry culture able to protect them. The publication of the full report - and the potential ramifications of increased regulation on the food industry - could also be a vote loser if it had an effect on jobs or the price of food. Publication might also be “kicked into the long grass” in the wake of the reshuffle, industry insiders have suggested.
For Truss, those nine months might feel like a very long time after all.
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