Farm workers are set to lose out as the Tories scrap a board that sets their pay.
The government has axed the Agricultural Wages Board as part of its “quango cull”.
The board of union reps and employers set a minimum rate for farm work.
This year it had gone for a 2.8 percent increase, bringing standard-grade farm workers’ pay up to £6.58 an hour.
Craft-grade workers would have got £7.76, and farm managers more still.
Now farmers will be free to pay workers as little as they like, limited only by the minimum wage of £5.80 an hour.