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Minette Batters, Baroness Batters

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The Right Honourable
The Baroness Batters
DL
Batters in 2021
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office
16 August 2024
Life peerage
President of the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales
In office
2018–2024
Deputy
  • Guy Smith
  • Tom Bradshaw
Preceded byMeurig Raymond
Succeeded byTom Bradshaw
Personal details
Born
Minette Bridget Hill

(1967-05-28) 28 May 1967 (age 57)
Political partyCrossbench
Children2
OccupationFarmer

Minette Bridget Batters, Baroness Batters, DL (née Hill; born 28 May 1967), is a British farmer who was the president of the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales from 2018 to 2024. She has been a member of the House of Lords since 2024.

Early life

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Batters was born on 28 May 1967.[1] She was brought up on a tenant farm near Salisbury and always wanted to be a farmer. She attended Godolphin School, an independent school in Salisbury.[2] As a teenager she worked with horses for David Elsworth, including riding over 30 winners in races. Her father encouraged her to develop a career instead of becoming involved in farming, so she attended catering college and then ran a catering company.[3] In 1998, when her father retired, she took over the farm's tenancy.[4]

Career

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Batters is a tenant farmer of a 300-acre mixed farm near Downton in Wiltshire.[5][6] As well as the farm, she runs a catering business and has diversified into using a renovated barn as a wedding venue. She was a co-founder of the 2010s campaigns Ladies in Beef and the Great British Beef Week.[4]

Batters with Rishi Sunak at Number 10 in May 2023

She joined the NFU when she started farming, and rose to be county chair and a member of several NFU committees. She served as vice-president of the NFU from 2014 to 2018 and was voted president of the organisation in 2018. In 2020 and 2022 she was re-elected to the post for further two-year terms.[5][4][7][8]

In her role as vice-president and then president, Batters has represented the farming community at a time of great change. She agreed a target for the NFU of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. Leaving the European Union – with its freedom of movement for farm labour, as well as the Single Market and Common Agricultural Policy – has resulted in significant changes to farming. New regulatory and transitional subsidy arrangements in the British Isles affect farming. Batters has supported orderly change and maintenance of high standards in UK agriculture. She worked with Michael Gove while he was secretary of state for the environment.[9] She encourages working with the government on agriculture and trade policies so that the farming community can produce food that is globally competitive, while also improving the environment and mitigating climate change.[10] In 2020 she was part of a campaign to ensure that post-Brexit agricultural trade agreements, such as with the USA, did not allow import of food produced under conditions that would be illegal in the UK.[11]

After her final term as NFU president ended in 2024, she started a new farm enterprise, growing flowers.[11]

Honours and awards

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In November 2020 she was included in the BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Power List 2020.[12] In August 2021 she was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Wiltshire.[6][13]

Peerage

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Batters was nominated for a life peerage in the 2024 Dissolution Honours.[14][15][16] She was created Baroness Batters, of Downton in the County of Wiltshire, on 16 August 2024[17] and is a crossbench member of the House of Lords.[18]

Personal life

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She is divorced with twins.[1][19]

References

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  1. ^ a b Thompson, Alice; Sylvester, Rachel (8 March 2014). "Minette Batters: 'Losing herds to TB has driven farmers to the edge'". The Times.
  2. ^ "Congratulations to OG Minnette Batters, first female president of the NFU!". Godolphin School. 22 February 2018.
  3. ^ "Minette Batters, Desert Island Discs – BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  4. ^ a b c "NFU elects first female president". BBC News. 21 February 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  5. ^ a b "Minette Batters, NFU President". NFU. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  6. ^ a b Robertson, Kirsten (14 August 2021). "New Deputy Lieutenants announced for Wiltshire". The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  7. ^ Ryan, Chloe (2 March 2020). "Minette Batters re-elected as NFU president". Poultry News. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  8. ^ Driver, Alistair (23 February 2022). "Minette Batters re-elected as NFU president in new-look top team". Pig World. Lewis Business Media. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  9. ^ Baggini, Julian (28 November 2019). "Minette Batters: Brexit has been "a face-slapping moment" for farming". New Statesman. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  10. ^ Pelletier Marshall, Michelle (23 June 2020). "EXECUTIVE PROFILE: Minette Batters, President of NFU". Women in Agribusiness. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  11. ^ a b Hill, Anna. "On Your Farm: Minette Batters". BBC. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  12. ^ "Woman's Hour Power List 2020: The List". BBC Radio4. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  13. ^ "No. 63442". The London Gazette. 13 August 2021. p. 14332.
  14. ^ "No. 64480". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 August 2024. p. 15222.
  15. ^ "Dissolution Peerages 2024". GOV.UK. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  16. ^ Whannel, Kate (4 July 2024). "Theresa May and 'bionic' MP awarded peerages". BBC News. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  17. ^ "No. 64495". The London Gazette. 22 August 2024. p. 16250.
  18. ^ "Baroness Batters: Parliamentary career". UK Parliament. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  19. ^ "'I feared farmers would be used as a pawn in trade deals – and that's what happened'". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
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