A copy of a reader's email sent to Henry Tufnell, new MP for Mid and South Pembrokeshire :

Dear Mr Tufnell,

Welcome to Pembrokeshire and the first test of your integrity. You say you are from a farming family, which is somewhat vague. I wonder how many times you have been in the fields in the wind, rain and snow?

How many times have you been covered in muck from head to toe, ingrained in your skin? How many times have you given up any thought of a holiday in order to try to pay the next instalment on a huge finance arrangement needed to buy a tractor or bailer?

My partner (62) has farmed in Pembrokeshire since she was 16. She developed the family dairy farm with her husband. Until his untimely death in his 50s, they had only had ONE holiday in all their lives; a week of honeymoon.

They NEVER had the luxury of even ONE lie-in in the morning. But what they did, was scrimp and save every single penny, investing in the farm and producing milk, meat and crops for you and your constituents to live off.

They fought for years against the greed of the supermarkets, the ridiculous rules and regulations imposed by successive ignorant governments. They managed to scrape a living, no new clothes, four hours together as a family for Christmas, and the rest of the time managing the farm, eking out a living.

This wasn’t a career, or “earning money” as any normal person would describe, but a vocation. A strong love of the land and the animals and a great pride in delivering food to the community.

My partner is a strong person. I have never seen her cry. Until this morning. When I came downstairs to find why she was up so early, I found her weeping quietly. And it’s your fault.

Please don’t abdicate blame. You are the young MP for this county. My partner is one of your constituents. You are a member of a party who have collectively decided that this punitive tax will be imposed.

I have no doubt you were one of those imbeciles who were braying at the chancellor at the end of her speech last Wednesday, dementedly waving your papers in the air. If only you knew what that looked like to us normal hard working people.

The amendment to APR will devastate farming in your constituency. Do you realise that? The sons of my partner have not got the several hundred thousand pounds to pay the expected tax.

Do you know, they work seven days a week on the farm, all weathers and long long hours. For what? Their “wage” is £200 each per week. I would wager that you will spend that at one lunch, with wine, in London!

The amendment to APR will impact most farms, above smallholdings, in your constituency. There has been no impact assessment published. ( a common theme with your government it seems). The published and stated impact is wildly inaccurate. I don’t know whether this is a deliberate minimising of the effect of the tax or whether it is born out of ignorance.

Farmers today have to deal with so much adversity; TB and the destruction of their healthy herds as a consequence, the vagaries of the weather destroying crops, ever increasing regulations which are imposed without consultation, the ridiculous requirement to plant trees and flowers rather than crops. And on top of all this, you and your government have decided to stab the industry as hard as you can.

Can you explain why Keir Starmer made pledges to support farming? Was he lying? Or are you going to blame that on the fictitious black hole?

Your party are finding governing to be a lot more difficult than you thought. You have made a hash of so many things in such a short time.

I ask you, in this matter, to do the right thing, lobby your leader and chancellor to reverse this devastating decision. I do not believe that you recognise the strength of feeling and are hoping this will go away. It won’t.

And now I have to go and find my partner and try and encourage her that today is another day. I expect I’ll find her in one of the sheds, up to her knees in sh*t.

I look forward to your response.

Steve Hedley