David Handley is the leader of the militant pressure group

Farmers for Action Farmers for Action (FFA) is a lobby group representing farmers in the United Kingdom. History It was founded in Worcestershire in May 2000 by David Handley. Handley has been the only person to hold the position of chairman since the FFA was es ...

Biography

He was a leader of the UK fuel protestors in September 2000. He unsuccessfully challenged for the leadership of the British National Farmers Union and was backed by senior Conservative Party activist

Mark MacGregor Mark MacGregor (born 25 February 1961) is a British Conservative Party politician and entrepreneur. He fought several parliamentary elections for the party, became chief executive of Conservative Central Office from 2002 to 2003 and then ran Ste ...

. In spite of this, he is still a popular and well-known figure among UK farmers, having twice been voted by readers of ''

Farmers Weekly ''Farmers Weekly'' is a magazine aimed at the British farming industry. It provides news; business features; a weekly digest of facts and figures about British, European and world agriculture; and livestock, arable and machinery sections wi ...

'' their Personality of the Year. In 2005, he was presented with the Dairy Industry Award. On 10 May 2007, he was presented with the

Princess Royal Award Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for t ...

for his significant contribution to the UK dairy industry by

The Princess Royal Princess Royal is a title customarily (but not automatically) awarded by British monarchs to their eldest daughters. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of the royal family. There have been ...

at a private reception at

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

. On 6 June 2012, Handley, who leads a group called

, was interviewed on the

Today Programme ''Today'', colloquially known as ''the Today programme'', is BBC Radio 4's long-running morning news and current-affairs radio programme. Broadcast on Monday to Saturday from 06:00 to 09:00 (starting on Saturday at 07:00), it is produced by BB ...

about the price of milk. He said "we are looking at disruption of the milk supply, and that could come in many forms and this country is now running into something that is going to be very special to a lot of people, and that is the Olympic Games". He also said that "part of our action is likely to disrupt that". In March 2016 Farmers For Action led by Handley marched in London joined by more than 5000 farmers, producers and supporters of British agriculture from across the UK, through Whitehall to 10 Downing Street to present a letter to David Cameron then PM, highlighting the crisis in British agriculture. He has spoken on a number of issues, including the uneconomic nature of dairy farming, having sold his dairy herd in 2015. He continues, through his role as Chairman of Farmers For Action, campaigning on many issues concerning farmers and producers in the UK. He is still called upon by the media to comment on aspects affecting the farming industry and writes a fortnightly column in the South West newspaper Western Daily Press.

External links

NFU presidential vote draws closer and the battle is hotting up

Farmers For Action website

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British activists 21st-century British farmers {{England-bio-stub

Biography

See also

External links

References