Ministers must support farmers to save wildlife from 'damaging uncertainty'

National Trust chief says seamless transition in funding is vital post-Brexit to protect countryside from short-termism

British farmers are returning to intensive measures that deplete wildlife and damage the environment as a vacuum in government policy leaves them facing an uncertain future after the Brexit vote, the director general of the National Trust is warning.

In an outspoken message to ministers, Dame Helen Ghosh says action is needed now to create a seamless transition of subsidies and green incentives for farmers after the UK leaves the EU in order to avoid creating a decade of uncertainty in the countryside.