Government plans to limit the amount of direct payments received by larger farmers will be unveiled as soon as January. Capping is one of the first changes that will be made after the UK leaves the European Union, said Defra secretary Michael Gove. A Defra paper to be published next month will detail the means by which the government will introduce the cap, he said.

British agricultural policy after Brexit should focus payments on smaller livestock farms, the UK’s farm minister George Eustice told Politico.

The outgoing Minister of State for Agriculture at DEFRA promised the political news website initial cuts to payments for “very, very large landowners and holdings” if the ruling Conservatives stay in government after next month’s election.

This is the first hint of how the Tories would distribute farm supports post-Brexit, after they pledged last week to keep the overall farm payments budget that currently exists under the EU’s CAP unchanged if they win another term in government until 2022.

Although they receive quite large single farm payments, it’s largely irrelevant to their business model

Eustice argued that large farms won’t need payments after Brexit. “The evidence is that they are best able to withstand it and certainly if you look at the big agri-businesses, particularly those in the veg sector. The truth is that although they receive quite large single farm payments, it’s largely irrelevant to their business model,” he said, citing intensive farms turning over £50m or more annually. “The farms that are most reliant on it [subsidies] tend to be some of your smaller family farms, particularly in the upland areas, particularly those in beef and sheep.”

In the longer term, the Conservative minister added: “I don’t think many people could defend the notion of an area-based subsidy system staying in place for perpetuity.” However, he acknowledge that “you’re not going to withdraw the single farm payment overnight”. The Conservative manifesto states that British farming policy should turn to “a new agri-environment system” after the next five years.