Defra secretary Steve Reed set out Labour's long-term vision to deliver a profitable farming sector "with food production at its core".

This "new deal for farmers" will include a "cast iron commitment to food security", he said, while introducing measures to help farmers diversify their income using renewable energy, and take advantage of planning reforms to construct new infrastructure and buildings to improve their productivity.

He also said the government, for the first time, will monitor food bought in the public sector in a bid to make it easier for British farmers to win a share of the £5bn spent each year on public sector catering contracts.

But Mr Reed's speech at the Oxford Farming Conference also attracted a noisy gathering of tractors and placard-waving protesters in the town, venting anger at recent budget measures including the controversial........

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