Millionaire farmer gets EU payout
(Daily Mail): Zac Goldsmith, the wealthy UK Tory MP, was paid nearly £60,000 in European farming subsidies in just three years, according to figures seen by The Mail on Sunday. Goldsmith, 36, who is estimated to be worth £300 million, received the payments for his 300-acre ecological farm in Devon, which is believed to be owned through offshore companies based in the Cayman Islands. But under an information blackout ordered by the Government, all the payments to Goldsmith and hundreds of other rich farmers have been removed from official figures.
Last week it emerged that the family of Richard Benyon, the Minister whose department covered up the details of the subsidies, earned £2 million from the same payouts. In 2009 Goldsmith was paid £21,500 from the two European agricultural funds for his Walreddon Farm in Tavistock. In 2008 the figure was £35,000 and in 2007 £2,600.
Category: Business
