Speeches by Zeichner.

“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon) on securing his first Adjournment debate and speaking with such knowledge and passion about this important subject. I welcome the valuable opportunity to close the debate by outlining the Government’s strong commitment to animal welfare pri…”

“No—I am going to conclude now. Delinked payments are not the answer to the long-term challenges farmers face, despite the Opposition’s hankering after them. This Government will not shy away from making the right and tough decisions to build a profitable and sustainable farming sector and to deliver Britain’s food secu…”

“I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Agriculture (Delinked Payments) (Reductions) (England) Regulations 2025. It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Twigg. The draft regulations were laid before the House on 13 February. They set out the reductions that will apply to delinked payments…”

“A technical reason why an impact assessment was not produced is that this is not a regulatory provision; however, we publish regular statistics on farm incomes and other data related to farm businesses. That includes the farm business income statistics published on 14 November 2024, and the plethora of farming evidence…”

“A figure is a figure—£5 billion. Many thought that that would not be achieved in the spending review, and I am very proud of it. We are happy to be able to provide that amount of money, which is actually going out to farmers, rather than being held back as it was under the previous Government, who failed to spend the m…”

“I am delighted to give way to the former Secretary of State who was responsible for that.”

“We will find ourselves arguing over definitions. Many farmers will now be environmental land managers and will be able to get money for schemes that protect nature. We have allocated £1.8 billion in 2025-26 for the environmental land management schemes. That will boost Britain’s food security and accelerate the transit…”

“I praise you for your forbearance, Mr Twigg; at one point, I thought you might move a closure motion yourself, because we have strayed a long way from delinked payments. In fact, we seem to be back in the general farming debate from a couple of weeks ago. I am astonished at Opposition Members’ complete lack of understa…”

“Of course, the hon. Gentleman will know that there was never clarity on the pace of that transition. I can also tell him that, despite his assertions earlier, the announcement on the changing level of delinked payments was actually made back in October—but I will make some progress now. It is astonishing that, listenin…”

“I said in the Chamber the other day that it was perfectly obvious that this would happen from the moment we introduced these new schemes. I knew five years ago that this would happen at some point. We monitor the schemes on a regular basis and the closure was decided a few weeks ago when it reached the limit—[Interrupt…”

“The overall amount of money is, as we said, £5 billion over the two years. I had a decision to make back in October whether I could maintain the delinked payments at a higher level or put the money into SFI. I am unashamedly following the path that the previous Government set out for an agricultural transition to a bet…”

“I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for making that point. I will come to broader arguments about what we are putting in place in a moment, but the reason why it appears that no impact statement was done is that impact statements were done earlier in the process, when this was all looked at as a consequence of the Agri…”

“The hon. Gentleman is right up to a point, but he is missing the point of the agricultural transition, which is a move to environmental land management payments. The economic impact is a secondary consequence. All those figures were there, however, and still hold good.”

“It is a pleasure to speak with you in the Chair, Mr Vickers. I thank the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George) for securing this debate. I welcome the opportunity to talk about the UK’s fishing and seafood industry and particularly the impact of quota negotiations on the UK fishing fleet in 2025. I thank all Members …”

“I hear the hon. Gentleman’s point, and I will go away and discuss it further. Virtually every Member who spoke talked about our relationship with our near neighbours in the European Union. Clearly there is a negotiation going on by proxy, if not directly, at the moment, so I will not comment on the individual points th…”

“The Crown Estate plays an important role, and we are working together closely. Things have improved. It has not always been an easy relationship, but we have a strong process and I am confident that it will work successfully. I am conscious of time, so I will address some of the points that have been raised, particular…”

“I will not, as I want to give the hon. Member for St Ives a moment to respond. As I said back in November, I genuinely think there is a bright future for the fishing sector, and it is important that we understand it is a key source of food. The Government are absolutely committed to making the most of these opportuniti…”

“I hear the hon. Gentleman’s complaint, but I have been to Devon in my role before, and I will come to Devon again. I am always happy to meet farmers. I have spent quite a lot of time at this Dispatch Box answering questions from Conservative Members, so perhaps fewer questions will mean more time to go out and meet far…”

“The hon. Gentleman always speaks with passion about his constituents, and I absolutely understand those concerns. He is right to say that the schemes we inherited did not reward those areas as well as they should. That is why in our announcement a few weeks ago, we increased the higher level stewardship payments by £30…”

“The new national procurement policy statement sets out requirements for Government contracts, and favours high-quality products that we believe British producers are very well placed to supply. This will support our ambition to ensure that half of the food supplied for public sector catering comes from local producers,…”