Scottish and Welsh livestock farmers were due to be allocated £15.1m to aid towards the financial losses from foot and mouth disease. The UK government has been strongly criticized for withdrawing this allocation.

The Scottish first minister, Mr Alex Salmond, claimed that in the run-up to the anticipated election, DEFRA was preparing to reveal the foot and mouth compensation scheme as a "pre-election bribe". Following Gordon Browns announcement that he was not going to the polls, the promise was dropped from the announcement. Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Mr Hillary Benn is denying such reports.

A draft of Mr Benn's speech, outlining the government's original foot and mouth compensation plans, was given to the Scottish government on Friday 5 October, ahead of the statement made to the house on Monday 8 October.

In this draft speech Mr Benn said "I have also agreed with the chief secretary to the Treasury that Scotland should receive £8.1m and Wales £6.5m to assist them in countering the impacts of foot and mouth on their livestock farmers."

Mr Benn's statement on Monday instead outlined an £8.5m aid package for England, and omitted allocation of compensation for the Scotts and Welsh, with DEFRA secretary Hilary Benn stating: "The Scottish Executive and the Welsh Assembly Government are developing their own schemes to deal with the circumstances."

Although the foot and mouth crisis had broken out in England, Scottish and Welsh farmers were worst affected, said the Scottish first minister. "I thought and believed it was the agreed position of all the governments that such was the emergency to rural communities that it was necessary to unite to minimize the damages and get us out of this crisis as soon as possible."

"It is therefore a great disappointment that we heard the agricultural secretary announce a scheme for England which made no provision for Scotland or Wales."

Mr Salmond added "This is a pretty shabby way to treat a national emergency. It flies in the face of the Prime Minister's rhetoric on facing the emergency of foot and mouth."

The Scottish first minister has written to the Prime Minister urging him to reevaluate his stance on this foot and mouth compensation.

NFU Scotland has sent a strongly-worded letter to the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, demanding details of the compensation being made available to Scotland for the tens of millions of pounds worth of damage caused to the livestock industry by the foot and mouth (FMD) outbreak.

President of the NFUS, Jim McLaren said "We have been calling on it to accept its moral responsibility to pay compensation to farmers suffering a crisis which is not of their making."

"We want to know why this u-turn came about. Without facts, people will only draw conclusions that this is linked to the decision not to call a general election."

NFUS has reiterated that the UK Government has a moral responsibility to compensate farmers for the consequences of foot and mouth disease being released from a UK research facility.

"It is time the UK government lived up to its responsibility and farmers will be livid if it emerges that the government has been using the financial and welfare catastrophe facing farm businesses as a political football."

Are you a Scottish or Welsh farmer who has been badly hit by the foot and mouth outbreak? What do you think? Express your view in our discussion forum.

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