‘We’ve made progress’: environment secretary is upbeat despite Labour’s struggles

Steve Reed says changes to living standards are happening and will make a big difference to trust in government

It was probably easier for Steve Reed to feel more cheerful about Labour's most torrid week in government while sitting on bales of hay in the blazing sunshine about 40 miles from Westminster.

The environment secretary might have sympathised with Rachel Reeves and Liz Kendall - he has experience of bearing the flak for some of the government's most controversial decisions on family farm taxes - but at Hertfordshire's Groundswell festival, named the Glastonbury for farms, he may simply have been happy not to be pelted with manure by unhappy farmers.