Heath prompts anger with assault on farm workers

He angered Labour MPs at Westminster by announcing a so-called "consultation" on the proposed abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB), while at the same time arguing for its destruction.

Then he stoked up fury in Wales by rejecting meaningful talks with Welsh Assembly government ministers on the future of the AWB in their nation.

As Westminster MPs debated the future of the AWB, they received a defiant message from Welsh Agriculture Minister Alun Davies.

Mr Davies tweeted: "Welsh government is determined to maintain the AWB structures in Wales. We have not consented to any abolition in Wales."

Labour's shadow rural affairs minister Huw Irranca-Davies accused the Tory-led government of showing "a singular lack of respect for the Welsh Assembly government and the people of Wales."

He warned that ministers were seeking a "back committee corridor way" of thwarting the wish of the Welsh people.

The Scottish government has retained the AWB and the Northern Ireland agriculture minister announced last month that she also plans to keep it.

During today's Westminster Hall debate, Labour MP Jamie Reed accused thegovernment of an attack on farm workers' rights that even former Tory leader Margaret Thatcher had shrunk away from pursuing.

Minister David Heath declared that the government was "now ready to listen" in a "consultation exercise." However, he insisted that the AWB was an "outdated and obsolete body."

Ignoring new attacks on workers' rights, the minister made the breathtaking claim that there had been "huge" advances in employment law in recent years.