Conservatives in the European Parliament have said that the true cost of Margaret Beckett’s failures as UK farm and environment minister to get 2005 single farm payments out in time is only just being realised now.

The group said it emerged earlier this week that UK taxpayers had already paid £63 million in EU fines for failing to meet the statutory deadline.

The figure was published on Tuesday in a House of Commons written reply from Environment Minister Jonathan Shaw. The National Audit Office said last month that Defra has set aside a total of £292 million to cover possible fines, which are customarily announced by the Commission in the spring.

Conservative chairman of the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, and a former Somerset farmer, Neil Parish MEP, said: “The fact our government has already paid out this much before the full extent of the fines has been announced suggests Defra is expecting an expensive rebuke from the European Commission.

“British farmers are still recovering from calamitous failures at Defra that led to so many farmers receiving their payments excessively late. Margaret Beckett introduced a complex system for making payments against all the advice being offered. While there has been widespread incompetence, the main reasons for the delay were poor ministerial decisions.

“Unfortunately, while the EU is justified to impose these fines, current evidence suggests the Treasury will pay for them by cutting Defra’s budget. British farmers continue to suffer as a result of Labour.”