Farming and Food Security

Daniel Zeichner Excerpts

Tuesday 8th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs (Daniel Zeichner)]

I am grateful to have the opportunity to close the debate. The hon. Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore) spoke for so long that it will not be possible to answer many of the questions he posed, but I am grateful to have the opportunity to show my gratitude and support to farmers working hard to feed the nation and protect our environment up and down the country.

We have heard some excellent first speeches from new Members today, and I want to pay tribute to them. From my hon. Friend the Member for Derbyshire Dales (John Whitby), we heard about the housing crisis and about the beauty of the constituency—from toe wrestling to Chatsworth. From the hon. Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage), we also heard about a beautiful constituency, as well as about the glorious breakfasts available in Cirencester and a eulogy to the Thames. Importantly, she made the point about young new entrants being able to enter farming, which is a passion of mine and something that we will be pursuing with vigour.

We heard from the hon. Member for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe (David Chadwick) about the beautiful spa towns of his constituency, as well as the health issues that he has faced and health systems. I very much recognise the points that he made. The hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Luke Taylor) talked about his internationally diverse community with real passion.

We also had excellent speeches from a range of people. My hon. Friend the Member for York Outer (Mr Charters) talked about water scarcity. My hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough) talked about the need for reservoirs. My hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Joe Morris) talked about depopulation and the need to get young people into farming. My hon. Friend the Member for Bathgate and Linlithgow (Kirsteen Sullivan) endorsed the sensible call from the president of the National Farmers Union for balance in our attitude to solar farms.

My hon. Friend the Member for Northampton South (Mike Reader) talked about food hardship. We heard powerful interventions about the mental health issues and challenges facing our farmers and the challenges of rural crime, and we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for North East Hertfordshire (Chris Hinchliff) on the need for a land use framework.

I have to say that, from listening to Conservative Members, they do not seem to have grasped the level of their own failure. The Conservative Government failed farmers and rural communities. We have heard about low levels of confidence, 12,000 businesses going out of business, and input costs and energy costs spiralling. That is why rural communities voted them out in their droves. It will be very different in the future.

We have heard the complaints about budgets for the future. I am sure that right hon. and hon. Members on the Opposition Benches have the experience to know how spending reviews work. They will find out in time where the money is. But, of course, given that they spent the money many times over, they know the problems that we are having to clear up. What we have heard is the need for stability in the future to overcome the economic problems that we have inherited from their failed Government.

Farmers are the backbone of rural communities, our environment and our economy, but they face multiple challenges from flooding and droughts to soaring input costs and rural crime. We need a proper long-term strategy that works. We will do away with the sticking-plaster approach that we have seen for the last few years and replace it with a new deal for farmers that genuinely will boost farmers’ resilience in the face of climate change and wider external shocks.

We will work in partnership with farmers, listen to their concerns and their ideas and tackle the root causes of the long-term issues that they continue to face. Only after those discussions and considerations will it be possible to deliver the changes that farmers really want to see. In summary, that will be a long-term approach—a Labour approach. That approach will be good for farms, good for consumers, good for the environment and good for nature—frankly, a real change from the short-term, quick-fix operators now deservedly relegated to the Opposition Benches.

Question put.