Emmerdale could be turfing Moira Dingle out of Butler’s Farm after 16 years – and Natalie J Robb has now spoken about the worrying storyline twist for the first time.

Today’s episode sees Moira discover that her financial penalties for the farm’s recent slurry leak will be even bigger than expected – which throws her back into crisis mode.

Moira isn’t sure she can afford to pay the large fees, so when the Tate family make another offer to buy Butler’s, she’s tempted to let it go for the first time.

Selling up would solve Moira’s problems, but is she really willing to throw in the towel after so many years of hard work?

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Discussing the new story, Natalie – who plays Moira – explained: “Of course Moira would miss it. My character has been there now for 16 years and it would be very odd for there to be a change.

“I’m kind of hoping that some good will come from this – because often with this, ideas will come into plan or she’ll get some help.

“I would miss it because Butler’s is a really good set to work on as well. I personally would miss it and I’m sure Moira would. I’m not sure what else she would do.”

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She continued: “If Moira can get some help, that would be wonderful. But she doesn’t want to be forced to sell. That’s the thing – at the moment she’s being forced to sell.

“A lot of this is coming from the slurry leak. That fine has really put her in trouble. She now has all these people going behind her back, making deals behind her back. People are trying to push her out, especially Joe Tate.

“She tries to fight the appeal, it was a genuine accident not negligence, but that doesn’t happen. Everywhere she goes, she’s stuck. She’s got her back against the wall and her stress levels are getting higher and higher.”

In upcoming scenes, Moira confides in her husband Cain about how it might be time to cut their losses.

Cain is respectful towards Moira’s dilemma, promising to support her with whatever decision she makes.

Natalie added: “Cain doesn’t want her to sell, obviously. He certainly wouldn’t want Kim Tate to be the one that buys it. Nor does Moira – she doesn’t want to sell either, but she also can’t deal with the stress.

“When you’ve seen an offer on the table that could take a lot of it away, and then you’re not going to be struggling all the time and working all the hours, then she feels that that’s the option.

“And Cain, after her tumour and everything else, he sees her getting stressed so says he will back her regardless, even though it’s not something that he wants.”