Ministers sustain payout attacks

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A ministerial row over compensation to Scottish farmers following the recent foot-and-mouth outbreak has shown no signs of dying down.

On Friday, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn denied that an £8.1m funding package for Scots farmers was dropped when an election date was ditched.

However, First Minister Alex Salmond said election talk played its part.

Cases of the disease in England resulted in restrictions to the movement of cattle throughout the UK.

The row erupted after Mr Salmond claimed that a draft ministerial speech shown to officials at the end of last week stated that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) would provide a compensation settlement north of the border worth £8.1m.

However, when Mr Benn delivered the statement to the House of Commons on Monday he outlined funding of £12.5m for English farmers only.

I am only sorry that we have an agricultural secretary who is not prepared to live up to what is his bounded responsibility to farmers in England, Scotland and Wales First Minister Alex Salmond

The minister told MPs that the devolved administrations were proposing to introduce their own schemes for farmers.

However, Mr Salmond has suggested that dropping the funding was linked to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's announcement on Saturday that there would be no autumn general election.

Mr Benn told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "There is no truth whatsoever in the allegation that decisions about funding for foot-and-mouth have anything to do with a possible election.

"Governments have discussions all the time about what they are going to do, options are looked at."

Labour politician Mr Benn said he regretted that the livestock industry had been used as a "political football" in the ongoing row between Holyrood and Westminster over the bill for compensation.

The minister was speaking as meat exports from Scotland and most of the UK to other European Union member states resumed.

'Student union'

He added: "I'm very sorry that it has been dealt with in this way because farmers are having a tough time.

"I don't think farmers want to see, in Scotland or other parts of the United Kingdom, people having an argument about the whys and wherefores."

Mr Salmond said the row was evidence of a disagreement about "living up to responsibilities".

Also speaking on the programme, the first minister said: "I am only sorry that we have an agricultural secretary who is not prepared to live up to what is his bounded responsibility to farmers in England, Scotland and Wales."

Lambs had stranded due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak

He added: "What happened over the weekend, between Friday and Monday? The only major development I can think of last weekend was that on Friday the election was on and then by Monday the election was off."

The Liberal Democrats' Scottish spokesman Alistair Carmichael, who is leading a cross-party delegation on the matter, claimed responsibility for the compensation lay with Defra.

However, he accused Mr Salmond of behaving like the "president of a student union" over the issue.

The Orkney and Shetland MP claimed the dispute had "seriously damaged relations" between departments in London and Edinburgh and had failed to help farmers.

He said: "I hope that everybody is going to pull back a bit here. I hope that they will step back and look at the situation and say, look we are at the edge of a precipice here let's not all join hands and jump off."