Farming Road Map and Profitability Review

Jim McMahon Excerpts

Wednesday 24th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Emma Reynolds]

I recently visited the Balmoral agricultural show with members of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, and the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee was there too. We had a good old chinwag. I also met Minister Muir and the Ulster Farmers’ Union. We are engaging closely with stakeholders in Northern Ireland. We have close relationships with all the devolved Administrations and are already engaging with them about our road map, but as the hon. Gentleman says, the road map is for England.

[Jim McMahon (Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton) (Lab/Co-op)]

Food security is national security, and the effort that the Government have put into this report is very clear. As chair of the Co-operative party, I am pleased that page 27 has a commitment to co-operatives and mutuals as part of the answer to this country’s food security.

Does the Secretary of State agree that one of the most significant things in this report will be allowing farmers to farm? Farmers say that so much of their time is spent trying to navigate a complex system of Government agencies, so the single system that is talked about could be a game changer.

[Emma Reynolds]

I agree with my hon. Friend. The focus of the road map is on reducing the burden of regulation and making sure that we have a simpler system, which is something Baroness Batters asked us to do.

As a Co-operative party member, I am delighted that we have references in the road map to the increased role of co-operatives. In other countries—I know the EFRA Committee was recently in New Zealand, which sounds like a nice trip—co-operatives play an even stronger role than they do here. I want to see what more we can do as a Government to boost the role of mutuals and co-operatives in agriculture.