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…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
1 September 2025
Middle East
Is the Foreign Secretary aware of the concerns expressed by his noble Friend Lord Hain about the possibility of contracts under the Army Collective Trading Service being awarded to Elbit Systems UK, whose parent company Elbit Systems Ltd markets its weapons as being “battle tested” in Gaza and on th…
Commons
Debate
17 July 2025
3 contributions
Global Plastics Treaty
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the Global Plastics Treaty.
I thank the Backbench Business Committee for making time available for this debate, and for allocating the debate to the main Chamber. That is an important signal that the House is in political consensus on the issue, and we…
Yes, if it is a properly constructed, nationwide deposit return scheme. The experience in Scotland was, shall we say, not everything that it might have been. A properly constructed scheme will be critical. I see the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member fo…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Proceedings
10 July 2025
Business of the House
May we have a debate or a statement on the accountability and accessibility of arm’s length bodies? For months, I have been working with a company to try to get answers for it out of UK Research and Innovation. Emails go unanswered for weeks and months at a time. There is no publicly available conta…
Commons
Oral Questions
10 July 2025
Relations with the European Union
If the last nine years have taught us nothing else, they have surely taught us that it is much easier to agree about the need for an agreement than it is to reach an agreement. The SPS agreement will be critical for food and drink exports. We are only going to get one chance on this, so to get it ri…
Commons
Debate
8 July 2025
Government Resilience Action Plan
I welcome the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster’s commitment that resilience must be for all, not just for some. The people of Shetland will hold him to those words. A few years ago, we suffered a catastrophic power outage for about seven days in winter storms, leaving many of my constituents rel…
Commons
Debate
7 July 2025
Pension Schemes Bill
In the last Parliament, a number of us raised concerns about the administration of defined-benefit schemes by, among others, BP, Shell and Hewlett-Packard. It was obvious at that stage—I think this view was held by his right hon. Friend the Minister for Social Security and Disability, who was then t…
Commons
Westminster Hall
1 July 2025
Hospitality Sector
I too remind the House of my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. In Orkney and Shetland, the food and drink sector is an integral part of our local visitor economy, as is the hospitality sector, but neither is part of the Government’s industrial strategy. Does the hon. Gentleman a…
Commons
Proceedings
3 June 2025
Thames Water
Under the £3 billion loan that Thames Water has negotiated, the first drawdown of £1.5 billion will be on 30 June, which is less than four weeks away. That is contingent on Thames Water having a lock-up agreement in respect of a recapitalisation transaction, but it now has no partner to provide that…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 June 2025
4 contributions
Groceries Code Adjudicator
rose—
The right hon. Gentleman flatters to deceive, I fear. He is right about the way grocery supermarkets go about their business, but much of the problem is the way they choose to go about it. I recently heard from a livestock farmer who bought in potatoes to feed stock. He expected to find them green, …
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 June 2025
Inheritance Tax: Family-owned Businesses
I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure that the guidance from His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs states that, at present, where there is 100% relief, valuations for BPR are done on the basis of the book value, which is, as my hon. Friend will know, often very different from an asset’s actual value. T…
Commons
Debate
2 June 2025
Strategic Defence Review
The review describes responsibility for space policy within Government as “fragmented”, so its proposal for a “reinvigorated Cabinet sub-Committee” to set the strategic approach to space is to be welcomed. That will clearly have significant implications for the development of a vertical-launch satel…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
21 May 2025
Engagements
Q3. On Friday, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee published its report on the Government’s vision for agriculture. The Committee agrees with the Government that land purchase being used to shelter wealth from inheritance tax is a problem that needs to be tackled. As a cross-party Comm…
Commons
Proceedings
14 May 2025
Gaza: UK Assessment
Does the Minister accept that, where prima facie evidence of genocide exists, awaiting for the determination to be made formally by a court is not sufficient for us to meet the duty to prevent under the genocide convention?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 May 2025
Speaker’s Statement
Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. Thank you for allowing this quite exceptional but fitting tribute, which I am sure will give some comfort to Sir Roy’s wife Dawn and his children, Hannah and Elliott. It was my privilege to work with Sir Roy during the first three and a half years of the c…
Commons
Oral Questions
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
13 May 2025
Topical Questions
T9. I apologise, Mr Speaker; I had not realised that my name was on the Order Paper.
Commons
Ministerial Statement
6 May 2025
Trade Negotiations
For those of us who have Scotch whisky industry interests in our constituency, it is very welcome news that apparently globalisation is not dead after all. The Minister speaks about this being a deal that opens doors, but what assistance will be given to British companies, especially SMEs, to ensure…
Commons
Proceedings
1 May 2025
Energy Prices: Energy-intensive Industries
When the previous Government looked at supporting energy-intensive industries, they included within the definition brewers, cider makers and wine makers, but not distillers, despite the fact that distillers use 17 kW per hour to make a litre of alcohol, compared with brewers which use just 0.5 kW pe…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
1 May 2025
2 contributions
US Trade Negotiations: Farming
7. What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the potential impact of his trade negotiations with the US on the farming sector.
The Secretary of State in DEFRA recently appointed Baroness Batters to lead a profitability review in farming and has set up a farm profitability unit in the Department. Those are welcome and necessary steps, but it is not entirely unknown for the efforts of one Government Department to undermine th…
Commons
Westminster Hall
30 April 2025
Safety of Humanitarian Workers: Conflict Zones
My hon. Friend is making a significant speech on something that should concern us all. Does he agree that wherever these abuses are found, whether in Gaza, Sudan or any other theatre, they do not happen by accident? They happen because forces such as the Israeli Defence Forces, for example, are effe…