Brexit reshuffle: Leadsom to head up Defra

Andrea Leadsom has been appointed as the new Defra minister, it has been confirmed.

Leadsom, the Brexit advocate who pulled out of the Tory leadership contest on Monday in spectacular fashion paving the way for the leading candidate Theresa May to replace David Cameron as Prime Minister uncontested, will head up the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The move follows the promotion of the Defra minister Liz Truss to Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor in May’s cabinet reshuffle earlier today.

Defra is responsible for overseeing food and farming, which includes the UK’s burgeoning wine industry which is pledged to increase exports ten-fold by 2020.

Truss, who called the first ever English wine roundtable earlier this year to bring together producers and retailers to discuss boosting production and opening up new routes to markets, said she was sad to be leaving Defra, but was looking forward to getting ‘stuck in’ to her new brief.

Barry Lewis, CEO of the UKVA, which represents the English and Welsh wine industry welcomed today’s appointment and said he was sure she would be a great advocate of the English wine sector. “We look forward to working with her on a range of issues, one of those of course will be how we can make the most of Brexit and minimise potential issues as we seek to exit the EU,” he said.

Following the vote three weeks ago, he had said it  was time for the English wine industry to be clear in its approach and work within the framework of the Brexit negotiations, working with Defra and others to understand what will change and how UKVA could influence, shape and work within those changes.

Speaking the morning after the Brexit result three weeks ago, Miles Beale confirmed the WSTA would do everything it could to ensure that the UK’s wine and spirit industry had a powerful voice and to promote the leading position of the UK’s drinks industry’s so it could fulfill its “huge potential” in an increasingly competitive international market place .

“While our members felt that the wine and spirit industry was stronger in the EU, we will work to assist government in preserving our access to the Single Market, supporting British drinks exports and agreeing the best possible international free trade agreements,” he said at the time.