Speeches by Zeichner.

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and we should all be proud of high-quality British producers like Longley farm. That is why, back in July, I announced our food strategy, which will build pride in British food by ensuring we have a food system that backs British food, grows the economy, feeds the nation, nourishes i…”

“The hon. Gentleman will be pleased to know that we will be making announcements on this very shortly. [Interruption.] We are picking up a disastrous mess inherited from the previous Government—this is absolutely true—who were quite cavalier about the way in which these schemes were run. We are having to clear up that m…”

“The hon. Gentleman raises a very important point, and I visited an abattoir last week. Because of the changes to the system over a number of years, we have seen a concentration of these facilities. We all want to see more small abattoirs. The previous Government introduced a fund, but it proved difficult to get uptake.…”

“My hon. Friend makes an important point, and I commend him on his interest and his insight. He is absolutely right, and we are learning from past SFI iterations and from what we are hearing from farmers to improve the SFI for all farmers and to ensure we can give better guidance and that everyone can have a share of th…”

“Let me start by acknowledging just how tough it has been for so many farmers this year, having been faced with the very extreme weather conditions. We have had very hot weather, following on from last year, when many suffered from floods. It is undeniable that we are seeing our climate changing. The Government are resp…”

“I assure my hon. Friend that I have had numerous conversations with leading academics in her great city, and I would be happy to have further conversations along those lines.”

“My hon. Friend makes a very important point. Of course, consumer food prices depend on a wide range of factors, including agrifood import prices, agricultural prices in general, domestic labour and manufacturing costs, exchange rates, productivity and the extreme weather we have been seeing, which inevitably impacts gr…”

“Funding for the environmental land management schemes paid to farmers will increase by 150%, from £800 million in 2023-24 to £2 billion by 2028-29. Sadly, though, we inherited a set of schemes that did not necessarily distribute funds fairly. We are working with farmers to reshape the SFI, and further information about…”

“I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Free-Range Poultrymeat Marketing Standards (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2025. It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Jeremy. I warmly welcome everyone back, and hope they had a good break. This statutory instrument has been laid to amend exis…”

“It is always a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. Let me congratulate the right hon. Member for North East Cambridgeshire (Steve Barclay)—my near neighbour and colleague—on securing today’s debate on such an important policy area. He is clearly deeply knowledgeable on issues relating to EU negotiation and…”

“Of course—absolutely. We are always working in collaboration, and we will do everything we can to ensure that. It is an important principle that has been established, and I am determined to ensure that it is successful. Next month, at the resumed fifth session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee, we will hav…”

“I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s well-informed intervention. I assure him that negotiations and discussions are ongoing, and we are determined to ensure that we get a good outcome. As well as leading early work to develop criteria for problematic plastic products since the second negotiating session, INC2, the UK…”

“It is a pleasure to respond to the debate, so ably introduced by the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael). He, along with every Member from across the Chamber who made a contribution, pointed out the seriousness of the issue and the urgent need for action. Plastic pollution is one of the biggest en…”

“I assure the hon. Gentleman that we are working with all interested parties to ensure that we make progress on this issue. My hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice (Emma Hardy) recently co-hosted a ministerial event at the UN ocean conference to bring together Ministers from a range of coun…”

“This is one of a number of disease threats we have. It is really difficult for people. We absolutely understand the problem. We saw it first in the Netherlands; it has come across the country. It is midge-borne. In England, we set up the control zones that certainly prevented it moving as quickly as it would have done …”

“The Groceries Code Adjudicator does a very good job. It is a very specific job. Through the fair dealing clauses that are available to us under the Agriculture Act, we have introduced a second adjudicator, the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator. That is a relatively new role, which came in on the back of the dairy r…”

“It is warming up in here, so I will take up your suggestion about removing coats, Chair.”

“Yes, if they are very quick.”

“Of course, we always listen to constructive proposals, but what I am told by Treasury colleagues is that a clawback would mean that inheritance tax would only be due if the relevant assets are sold within a specified time period after a death. The Treasury’s analysis is that some of the wealthiest estates would end up …”

“We could probably have a whole session on food security alone. You will know that we are statutorily obliged to produce a food security report for the UK once every three years. We did that on time last December. Yesterday, as part of the food strategy announcement, I announced that we are intending to put in place an …”