Oral Answers to Questions

Joe Morris Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Security (Dan Jarvis)]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for the important points that she raises and for the constructive conversations that we have had about these matters. She will note the work of the Rycroft review, and I know that she understands the important work we do through the defending democracy taskforce. As the chair of that taskforce, I have always believed that this is a shared endeavour across the House.

We will assemble a new cross-Government task-and-finish team to identify next steps for tackling the issue of megadonors in UK politics and putting politics under public control. Many hon. Members will have seen the programme to which the hon. Lady refers and will share her concerns. She will understand that there is now a live police investigation, so there is nothing more I can say about it.

[Joe Morris (Hexham) (Lab)]

T8. I welcomed the announcement that the First Secretary of State and the Prime Minister made over the summer on reforming procurement to benefit British businesses. On my summer tour of my constituency, I met large groups of local farmers, who have seen previous procurement reforms not quite benefit farmers as they would have liked. I visit farms in Northumberland, unlike my predecessors, so will the Minister join me on a visit to a local farm to discuss how procurement can benefit British farmers?

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mark Ferguson)]

I commend my hon. Friend for his remarkable stamina over the summer, with more than 80 visits across his constituency—the largest in England. He is certainly a passionate campaigner for farmers. He will know that our recently announced reforms to social value mean that businesses bidding for Government contracts—a market worth £90 billion—will be rightly judged on whether they create high-quality jobs, skills and apprenticeships in local communities. That includes food procurement, and our aim is for at least half of all public sector food to be produced locally. I will gladly join him and one of his local farmers to talk about that further.