Speeches by Dewhirst.

“Do you have a good idea as to how much money you will need from the Treasury to deliver on these aims? Do you have the data to back that up to make a persuasive case?”

“It is just a concern with these legal targets that if you do not have the resource to give to farmers to achieve them—if you take, for example, water quality, which will be quite a significant challenge in meeting the nitrogenous and phosphorus contribution and so on—farmers might end up getting blamed because they hav…”

“2. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the increase to employer national insurance contributions on social care.”

“The increase in employer national insurance contributions comes at a time when we simply cannot afford to lose any more provision from care providers. Age UK estimates that 2 million people aged 65 and over already have unmet care and support needs. What assessment has the Minister made of the potential increase in unm…”

“16. What steps he is taking to support veterans.”

“Will the Minister join me in congratulating East Riding of Yorkshire council on achieving the armed forces covenant employer recognition scheme gold award, and pay tribute to both the council leader Anne Handley and our armed forces champion Councillor Liam Dealtry for their roles in achieving that? Could he also tell …”

“There appears to be inconsistency between what Ministers are saying about the report by the National Energy System Operator and what the CEO of NESO told the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee last week. Can the Secretary of State answer this clearly: does the NESO report forecast higher or lower energy bills under…”

“T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.”

“Victoria, you alluded to the pebble in the pond and the impact; how money is taken out of the sector and then not spent on businesses. BPR also affects people who are not farmers: other businesses in the rural economy, the rural community. Do you want to share—very briefly, because we are about to go to PMQs—the impact…”

“On SEND funding, the East Riding of Yorkshire is the lowest funded local authority for SEND per pupil. Children in the Prime Minister’s constituency get three times more funding than children in mine, which is a travesty in itself. This policy will put even more strain on my local authority and the children who despera…”

“This is not putting words in your mouth, but my view is that there is therefore a concern that a wealthy individual who has bought a large house in the country and has two fields is caught in the Treasury figures as being unimpacted and they are calling them a farm; they are not a farm. Frankly, they have some ponies. …”

“One of the challenges is that the definition of a farm is something that the Government have failed to produce—we have had discussions internally about this—which is something that we are keen to understand because of course this is based on the fact that the Chancellor told us in the Budget speech this was about stopp…”

“Thank you all for coming in this morning. I would like to ask a question to each panellist, perhaps starting with David and moving along. Could each of you reflect on the Treasury’s figures which say that around 500 estates will be impacted each year and the fact that those figures are contradicted by DEFRA, another Go…”

“One of the challenges is that the definition of a farm is something that the Government have failed to produce—we have had discussions internally about this—which is something that we are keen to understand because of course this is based on the fact that the Chancellor told us in the Budget speech this was about stopp…”

“This is not putting words in your mouth, but my view is that there is therefore a concern that a wealthy individual who has bought a large house in the country and has two fields is caught in the Treasury figures as being unimpacted and they are calling them a farm; they are not a farm. Frankly, they have some ponies. …”

“Victoria, you alluded to the pebble in the pond and the impact; how money is taken out of the sector and then not spent on businesses. BPR also affects people who are not farmers: other businesses in the rural economy, the rural community. Do you want to share—very briefly, because we are about to go to PMQs—the impact…”

“Thank you all for coming in this morning. I would like to ask a question to each panellist, perhaps starting with David and moving along. Could each of you reflect on the Treasury’s figures which say that around 500 estates will be impacted each year and the fact that those figures are contradicted by DEFRA, another Go…”

“I share the frustration of my right hon. Friend shadow Secretary of State that the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs cannot be with us today. I wanted to offer him some sympathy, because I do not believe that either he or the farming Minister cooked up this terrible plan. It was thrust on them …”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely correct. Farmers are of course price takers, not price setters, and they have always been under great pressure from the retail chain to keep their prices to a minimum, so that we can all enjoy cheaper food. That is a fact of life, and a very difficult challenge.”

“We are going to have to agree to disagree on that point. Frankly, this is a policy dreamt up by the Treasury on a spreadsheet. There has been no impact assessment, and there is no understanding of its impact on rural communities. This is not just an assault on farmers; it is an attack on the entire agricultural economy…”