Commons
Proceedings
15 January 2026
Digital ID
I am struggling to get too excited about the change from mandatory to voluntary, because we all know that a voluntary scheme is just a mandatory scheme for slow learners, which is possibly what commends it to the Government. The Minister has said that he cannot yet tell us the cost of the scheme bec…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 January 2026
Food Inflation
The hon. Lady is absolutely right in identifying the structure here. The market is one that is ripe for abuse. There are 15 behemoth retailers at the top and 210,000 primary producers at the bottom, leading to a situation where our constituents cannot afford to buy the food and the food producers ca…
Commons
Westminster Hall
7 January 2026
Meat Exports to the EU
My hon. Friend is absolutely right: an SPS agreement would be an enormous opportunity for communities like his and mine that export to the European Union. But there are already significant divergences between the United Kingdom and the European Union, so does he agree that, if that SPS agreement is …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 January 2026
Venezuela
The last time I saw this degree of agreement between Government and Opposition Front Benchers in relation to foreign policy was in the run-up to the war in Iraq, and we all know how that ended. But I welcome what the Foreign Secretary has said about being clear that the leadership of Venezuela must …
Commons
Debate
5 January 2026
Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief
I welcome this announcement and I pay the warmest possible tribute to the farming unions and others whose tireless campaigning since the Budget of 2024 has made this happen. These changes make the policy better, but that is not the same as saying that they make it good. It is surely bizarre that in …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
17 December 2025
UK-EU Common Understanding Negotiations
It is great to see the Paymaster General at the Dispatch Box, as always, but it would be even better if we could see him at the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, which is taking a close interest in the food and drink agreement. May I remind him that Boris Johnson got it badly wrong with…
Commons
Debate
16 December 2025
6 contributions
Finance (No. 2) Bill
Will the Exchequer Secretary give way?
I am grateful to the Exchequer Secretary for giving way. On the point of growth, he should be aware that, since the Budget last year, 49% of farm businesses have paused or cancelled planned investment, 10% have already downsized operations, and 21% intend to do so before next April. What are the Gov…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
15 December 2025
Jimmy Lai Conviction
There is a legitimate and necessary debate to be had on our wider foreign policy towards China, but surely the most important thing today is that this House should speak with one voice in condemning this sham trial and demanding the immediate release of Jimmy Lai, and I thank the Foreign Secretary f…
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 December 2025
Digital ID
The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, but are we not at risk of ignoring another threat: the Government themselves? It has not been that long since the Police Service of Northern Ireland published the data of every serving officer and member of staff, as a result of which people had to leave …
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
4 December 2025
Topical Questions
T4. May I take the Security Minister back to the subject of the security of undersea cables? He may know that in Shetland we have had two catastrophic breakages this year as a result of fishing boats breaking the cables. It has now become clear that there is no basic sharing of information between t…
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
4 December 2025
2 contributions
EU SPS Agreement
1. What his Department’s priorities are in negotiations with the EU on a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement.
I am sure we all understand the reasons for the Paymaster General’s absence today, although I am less clear on his reasons for being absent from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee next Tuesday; he has declined our invitation to attend. A bold deal is indeed something to be wished for,…
Commons
Debate
3 December 2025
Pension Schemes Bill
I have several BP pensioners, with BP obviously having operated the Sullom Voe terminal in Shetland for many years. The injustice they suffered, which left them with a pension worth about 11% less than it should have been because of the decisions of the trustee in 2021 and 2022, showed the inadequac…
Commons
Proceedings
27 November 2025
Business of the House
Reaching a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement with the European Union is one of the most significant developments that we are likely to see for farmers and other food producers. It could bring massive opportunities, but also significant risks, especially for arable farmers. Although any agreement …
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 November 2025
Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations
I commend the hon. Lady, who is making a very important contribution. This is looking to the medium and long term; but, candidly, if there is to be any civic infrastructure in Gaza, the seeds of that must come from the west bank, and in the west bank it is under threat day and daily. Therefore, alth…
Commons
Westminster Hall
19 November 2025
Specialist Manufacturing Sector: Regional Economies
I agree with everything that the hon. Gentleman is saying, but may I encourage him to go one step upstream and look at some of the wider policy context? If we are to regrow our manufacturing base, as we absolutely need to, we have to accept that it will be about future technologies, not just replaci…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
30 October 2025
2 contributions
Farming Sector: US Trading Relationship
13. What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the potential impact of the trading relationship with the US on the farming sector.
The Secretary of State is right that any threat of an imminent increase in US beef imports in particular is clearly not the problem, but it has not gone away either. The US Department of Agriculture has a foreign agricultural service with 100 different offices, embassies and trade missions. They wor…
Commons
Proceedings
23 October 2025
Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund
I welcome the Minister to her new position. I have to say, though, if ever there were an illustration of the scale of the challenge facing Ministers in turning around the Department, this is it. Let us not forget that this fund was created because the Prime Minister rolled over for a further 12 year…
Commons
Debate
22 October 2025
4 contributions
Devolution in Scotland
I agree with what the hon. Gentleman is saying. I was struck by what the Chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee, the hon. Member for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson), said about the roots of the Scottish Parliament and the constitutional convention. Those of us who were part of that movement believ…
The hon. Gentleman will have heard other people make the point about that journey and the need for it to go from the Scottish Parliament down to communities. One of the most clamant cases for that journey to continue relates to the administration of the Crown Estate. We now see Crown Estate Scotland…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 October 2025
Mandatory Digital ID
I agree with most of the hon. Gentleman’s conclusions. Does he agree that, in hindsight, the Scottish Government’s use of a covid passport was a mistake, especially in a way that exposed the Government to criticism from the Information Commissioner about the lack of transparency on how that data was…
Commons
Proceedings
16 October 2025
Business of the House
First, I associate myself with the comments about Ming Campbell. Ming was a friend and mentor to me for 42 years, and I wanted to take part in the tributes, but I was with the Select Committee in Brussels. Knowing his commitment to the European ideal, I was pretty sure that that was where he wanted …
Commons
Debate
16 September 2025
Ambassador to the United States
Does the right hon. Lady agree that if we are to salvage anything positive from this whole sorry episode, it must be that in the future, Parliament, through the Select Committees, has a role in this process? Does not her experience illustrate that the question of who is in charge of that must remain…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
11 September 2025
6 contributions
Biosecurity at the Border: Britain’s Illegal Meat Crisis
I thank the Backbench Business Committee for allocating time for me to make the statement, which marks the publication of the third report by our Committee in this Parliament.
Our report is titled “Biosecurity at the Border: Britain’s Illegal Meat Crisis”, and it really is a crisis. It is a crisis …
Even as things currently stand, we have a mental health crisis in the farming industry. We know from our own personal community experience from 2001 that that was a moment of genuinely acute mental health crisis from which many people have not yet recovered. The truth of the matter is that one of th…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 September 2025
Indefinite Leave to Remain
That is an important point, which is related to one made earlier by the hon. Member for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (Andy McDonald), and it is about the stability that people have in their life if they know that they have indefinite leave to remain. The industry that I have the most to do with i…
Commons
Oral Questions
4 September 2025
Climate Change: Food Security
In June, the Scottish Government made a very welcome commitment not to pursue a deliberate policy of reducing livestock numbers. Despite that, livestock numbers in Scotland continue to fall and have fallen by 15% over 10 years, so that across the United Kingdom we now risk losing the critical mass w…
Commons
Debate
3 September 2025
2 contributions
Hospitality Sector
Will the Minister give way?
I think the Minister may need to add a few more island venues to his travel itinerary in the future. May I take him back to the question of tax? He is right to say that if we will a reduction in tax, we should look for a reduction in expenditure, but it does not always work like that. When we cut th…