Speeches by Dewhirst.

“Was there unanimous support for the current leadership from the board?”

“The Minister may be aware that the RAF’s investment in the P-8 submarine hunting programme was made in 2015, at a time when Russian activity in the north Atlantic was much less of a threat to the UK. I welcome the £100 million announced just now, but that is less than one third of the cost of one of those aircraft, so …”

“The Minister is probably sick of hearing me bang on about the local picture up in the East Riding of Yorkshire and the fact that ours is the lowest-funded local authority for SEND. We have roughly £1,000 per pupil per year, while Camden is at the other end of the league table: the funding in the Prime Minister’s consti…”

“One of the problems for the children involved is that their journey is uncertain, and the system becomes inflexible. The reviews are not carried out in a timely fashion, which means that a child gets stuck in a placement that may not be right, which exacerbates the problem for the future. We end up with much bigger, mo…”

“Anyone who has been to the pumps in the last couple of weeks will have felt the pain of price rises. I do not blame the Secretary of State for that—obviously, international events have taken over—but can she guarantee the House that there will be no further rise in fuel duty for the remainder of this calendar year?”

“10. What recent steps her Department has taken to support motorists.”

“On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. This House passed the Humble Address so that there is full transparency on Lord Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the United States. That includes the due diligence undertaken by the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team. Yet, in an answer to a written question, Ca…”

“We can appreciate the frustration among farmers when one week they are told this, another week they are told that, and there does not seem to be this joined-up direction of travel. There is not a vision that seems to add up. I know that you are eventually going to produce a farming roadmap once you have produced all th…”

“Everybody wants to see Government set out a coherent vision on what is achievable if you want to produce more food in certain sectors and so on. Or are the Government saying, “No, take your land out of use and we will pay you to do it, that’s fine”? But as I say, one part of DEFRA is saying one thing, another is saying…”

“Did the land use framework team work with Minette Batters’s team on her review?”

“The two things do not necessarily add up, in terms of what she is looking to achieve through her review not necessarily falling in line with everything in this. We also obviously have different Ministers responsible for different arms of this; it feels to me like nothing is really joined up. Is that a fair assessment?”

“This says it has nothing to do with planning.”

“How is it going to influence behaviours in terms of farmers changing land use? If you are wanting to take land out of productive use and into environmental schemes and so on, other than saying what the situation is, or might be down the line, it is not actually saying to farmers, “This is why you should do it. Maybe th…”

“In terms of the detail within the framework, it clearly states that it is not intended to be a material consideration for planning, and likewise not a document that tells people what to do with their land. It appears to be neither carrot nor stick, so what is the point of it? How are you going to influence behaviour?”

“The Prime Minister has very clearly stated on a number of occasions that food security is national security. Sally mentioned that this document will sustain domestic food production. Surely we should be ambitious: we should want to increase domestic food production, and yet this is saying that we should be taking produ…”

“18. What steps his Department is taking to help reduce household energy bills.”

“Are you effectively saying that land that stays in productive use should be intensified? We are going to have to sustain the level. If you are going to take 9% out and the rest of it remains the same, we have to look at more intensive food production.”

“The latest wind auction has signed us up to sky-high prices for the next 20 years, but Ministers are claiming that their internal analysis proves that this will bring down bills. Will the Secretary of State publish those calculations in full so that we can see exactly how prices will be lowered?”

“6. What steps she is taking to support UK interests in sanitary and phytosanitary negotiations with the EU.”

“Various farming organisations have expressed their concern about the potential negative impact of dynamic alignment with the EU. CropLife’s report suggested that immediate alignment could cost British farming £800 million in year one, and could see wheat production reduced by more than 15%. What is the Secretary of Sta…”