Speeches by Eagle.

“I have been struck, since I got this job, by how complex a lot of the issues that are facing the industry at the moment are. That is because of not only the requirement, which has been very well delivered this year by colleagues, to negotiate the fishing opportunities on an annual basis, but the spatial squeeze—what el…”

“Yes, I do.”

“The Calamari (Enforcement) Regulations 2026.”

“I do not know the answer to that. We seem to have stuck particularly in this country with our white fish for fish and chips. Tuna is also very much something that we eat in this country. Older, more traditional fish that we ate, like herring, are semi coming back, but they are not big sellers. We are quite conservative…”

“If you are asking me whether we will do that here, the answer is no. We have our environmental improvement legal requirements. We have moved to a system where we are paying for public goods and the provision of improvements in soil and nature, as well as farming more sustainably. If we were to switch back that would be…”

“I am an octopus eater myself, but I recognise that not many people in Britain do the same thing.”

“Given what you have just read out, it sounds like there is a great deal of chance to improve them. They also are not surprising because of the huge uncertainties and change that the farming sector—and by that I mean the wider agricultural sector—has been through in the last few years. It continues to face some degrees …”

“A huge bloom, yes.”

“That is certainly not my experience since I took up this post.”

“From my sudden introduction to this very particular world, I have been quite impressed by the nature of the consultation and co-operation that happens. I arrived at the Department just as the opening was being made on all the international negotiations for fishing opportunities for next year, and I was struck by how in…”

“I would like them to improve.”

“Also, those representations are not done in a vacuum that excludes animal welfare.”

“Yes, I know. I know that is a sore point because I have been reading your hearings.”

“If we think that there are issues that might cause that kind of disjunction and that cannot be corrected by our very sophisticated supply chains, yes. Generally, stockpiling is not a very good use of food supplies. If the political situation were to change or there were some disjunction in world supply, that would be d…”

“We are still considering a method of production labelling. The slight issue that we have at the moment is the SPS talks with the EU. We cannot suddenly diverge and do things completely differently, if we then have to dynamically align with EU labelling methods. In between me personally and us wanting to have as much in…”

“We published on 11 December the first UK food security digest, which is intended to update the public on a selected range of priority indicators that are of a high interest or highly variable in the years when the main UK food security report is not published. We are keeping an eye on all this. We have to maintain our …”

“That is true. The collectivisation of the kulaks caused problems.”

“My view is that, for resilience, we should ensure that we have a healthy farming and food production industry that can adapt very quickly if we should have an issue. Part of food security and food resilience is our connections with the countries that we trade with. For example, during the winter months, we can get frui…”

“Thank you, Chair. It is a great pleasure to be here. I am looking forward to a good session today. I am Angela Eagle. I am the Member of Parliament for Wallasey. I am the Minister of State for farming, fishing, rural affairs and various other bits round the side. I will leave my colleagues to introduce themselves.”

“I know that the responsible Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry East, has met the industry, and that workshops have been held over recent weeks to urgently and carefully identify options that address the issues that the hon. Member for Glastonbury and Somerton raises. We all need to find positive ways forw…”