The government could end up giving tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to an American company to help it restart carbon dioxide production at two plants, a minister has told Sky News.

Speaking to Kay Burley, Environment Secretary George Eustice said that without the “temporary” agreement with CF Fertilisers there would have been food supply problems.

“It’s going to be into many millions, possibly the tens of millions but it’s to underpin some of those fixed costs,” he said, when asked about the cost of the deal.

The agreement will see the government provide “limited financial support” towards the firm’s running costs for a number of weeks.

“They’re big costly plants,” Mr Eustice continued.

“We need the market to adjust, the food industry knows there’s going to be a sharp rise in the cost of carbon dioxide.”

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