Oral Answers to Questions

Harriet Cross Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Those are shocking statistics. Rail staff work incredibly hard to keep our country running and people safe. The abuse and assaults on staff are utterly unacceptable. We are taking measures to make sure they are safer. We want to encourage the use of body-worn cameras, which have been proven to reduce violence against staff by up to 47%. May I take this opportunity to thank our outstanding British Transport police for everything they do to support staff and passengers?

[Harriet Cross (Gordon and Buchan) (Con)]

Q9. This time a year ago, farmers and many others across the country were about to go to the polls, perhaps to vote Labour for the first time because they took the Prime Minister at his word that he and his party would never leave farmers in the background again. Within weeks, however, that trust had been completely shattered by the family farm tax. Farmers know how devastating that tax will be, the industry knows how devastating that tax will be, we on the Conservative Benches know how devastating it will be, and more and more of the Prime Minister’s own Back Benchers do, too. Following the U-turn on winter fuel payments, following the U-turn on grooming gangs, and following the many, many U-turns on welfare payments yesterday, will the Prime Minister now tell farmers up and down the country when it will be their turn for a U-turn and that he will scrap the family farm tax?

[The Prime Minister]

This time a year ago, the country was lining up to boot the Conservatives out of office, and long may they remain there. We put in place the most significant funding for farmers in the Budget, we have a road map for farmers that we are working on and, of course, where the Conservatives failed to spend the money, we are spending it with farmers.

Oral Answers to Questions

Harriet Cross Excerpts

Wednesday 27th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I agree that desecration is awful and should be condemned across the House. We are, as I said before, committed to tackling all forms of hatred and division, including Islamophobia in all its forms.

[Harriet Cross (Gordon and Buchan) (Con)]

Q2. Sarah and her family have farmed beef cattle in my constituency for over 70 years and they had always planned for her sister to continue the family legacy. Earlier this year, Sarah’s mother died suddenly and unexpectedly. She was just 58. Sarah said to me that, despite already having a tragic year, it was made even worse after the Budget. She said:“Changes to agricultural property relief have hit us hard while we’re already struggling to cope with bereavement and losing Mum.”What would the Prime Minister say to Sarah and her family, in what has been the most difficult year of their lives, in the light of the family farm tax?

[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for raising that case and the awful bereavement. If she would kindly send me the details, I will certainly have a look at the case. In relation to farming more broadly, as she knows, £5 billion was set aside in the Budget over the next two years as an investment in farming. That is the biggest amount that has ever been set aside—[Interruption.] I hear the chuntering, but the Conservatives actually failed to spend the last farming budget by £300 million. On the question of inheritance of family farms, it is important to bear in mind that in a typical case, which is parents passing to a child, the threshold is £3 million, and that is why, as she knows, the vast majority of farms will be totally unaffected.