The Queen of England made common cause with former communist collective farmworkers and other big landowners on Tuesday to fight cuts to subsidies proposed by Brussels. The UK and Germany attacked plans from the European Commission to slash aid to the biggest farms, saying they were unworkable and undesirable.

“There is no clear link between wealth and the size of a farm,” said a UK spokeswoman. “Many large farms are co-operatives set up to enable small farmers to benefit from economies of scale and, equally, large farms may offer greater environmental benefits than smaller ones.” She added that owners of large holdings would simply break them up to avoid the measures.