Speeches by Newbury.

“The Chancellor’s announcement of a £120 million support package for ceramics will of course be welcomed in Stoke-on-Trent, but also in Rugeley in my constituency, which is home to many workers at the Armitage Shanks factory in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Lichfield (Dave Robertson), who is a staunc…”

“Q6. Trump’s war in Iran means that the world will have to contend with a spike in inflation throughout this year. Many of my constituents struggle to afford their weekly shop, while our farmers struggle to make a living by producing what goes on the shelves. Labour Governments should always be on the side of working pe…”

“Obviously, you said you have been speaking to DEFRA about short-term help on energy, but I take it you have also been speaking to it about those regulatory points. Have you been reassured by what you have heard, or do you still feel that the direction of travel has not changed from what has already been planned?”

“I just have a question on the SPS negotiations with the EU. As you will have seen, as a Committee, we put to the Government in our fifth report that there should be a two-year implementation period, which I believe aligns with your position. However, as you alluded to, they said that they are very keen to see a deal im…”

“I have just two more brief follow-ups, if I may, on support for energy intensive industries. One of the complaints I have heard from businesses in my county is that a lot of the government support schemes at present are very focused on electricity and they ignore the gas component of the pressure that a lot of companie…”

“As we said earlier, Karen, the FDF has revised its food inflation forecast upwards to as much as 10%. That will be very concerning to all our constituents. Mine in Cannock Chase will worry about how they are going to afford an extra 60p on a pack of chicken or 20p on a bag of potatoes. It adds up over their weekly shop…”

“In the interest of time, can I just come to you briefly, Hannah? As we have heard, food inflation on some real staples such as milk and meat is rising even faster than headline inflation. For example, we heard that the price of beef could be up by 19% at the end of the year. I represent many people who are really strug…”

“They need to feel that the shift that we are all on—farmers included—is something that they are an active participant in and not just something that is just being done to them. It is fair to say that the National Trust has faced some criticism on that front for a number of years, including during your time as director …”

“The OEP has consistently highlighted the critical importance of getting nature-friendly farming right in order to achieve our environmental targets. You mentioned that as a barrier as one of your top three priorities. If confirmed, what would you want to do to further that aim?”

“I am glad you mentioned land use because that is something that I also wanted to pick up. I am sure you would agree that trust with the farming community is critical to the OEP being effective?”

“The structure and form of some of these support schemes is critical, so I would like to put one other example to you. In her recent farming profitability review, Baroness Minette Batters said that she feels that landscape recovery can currently be characterised as, in her words, “diamonds in paper crowns”. Significant …”

“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for leading the debate and my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley (Sonia Kumar), who has done so much incredible work as a physiotherapist previously and a staunch advocate of allied health professionals since her first day in this House. I pay tribute to the AHP…”

“Type 1 diabetes with disordered eating, or T1DE for short, is a lethal combination of two conditions, but pilot sites set up to trial bespoke NHS services that bring specialists from both fields together have closed down due to funding coming to an end, including two earlier this month. The all-party parliamentary grou…”

“In terms of the pressures on producers, we know that pretty much universally everybody is exposed to the cost of heating, processing, refrigeration, packaging, and getting goods to market. When you drill down into specific sectors, you have fresh produce and glasshouse horticulture that are very reliant on the cost of …”

“You are right: people at home will be most concerned, of course, about what is on the supermarket shelves and how much their weekly shop is going to cost. That is how all this will translate into the real world. We saw from covid that disruption to just-in-time supply chains can lead to shelves going empty pretty quick…”

“Concerns have also been expressed about out-of-season shortages. Do you recognise those? You think we can cope.”

“Do you think that with what we expect to be higher food inflation, we are also going to see higher supermarket profits?”

“Absolutely. The “as soon as possible” point is the pertinent one because we know that although the costs will be felt by consumers further down the road, the opportunity to stop it is now. Are you as concerned as I that when we talk about Government support, there is often a focus on electricity prices and we miss the …”

“Do you think that with what we expect to be higher food inflation, we are also going to see higher supermarket profits?”

“I am conscious of time, but Rohit, do you have anything to add on the point of Government support to mitigate the effects of inflation?”