Keir Starmer to push for investment in UK food and farming

Address to National Farmers' Union aims to extend party's support beyond urban strongholds

Sir Keir Starmer will call on farmers and people living in rural areas to take a fresh look at the Labour party, vowing to push for new investment in food and farming and a revision of subsidy payments, in an effort to move beyond the party's urban strongholds.

He will urge people to buy more British food, and for more of the public sector's 2.4bn food procurement budget to be spent locally, as well as calling for subsidised wages for apprentices to shore up the UK's ageing farm workforce.