debates/debates2025-11-13h conversation_12
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-11-13)

UK Parliament Hansard data: debates/debates2025-11-13h conversation_12

Pam Cox:If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities. \p Emma Reynolds: I am delighted to lead the first all-woman ministerial team in a UK Department of State. My focus as the new Secretary of State is delivering the Government’s No. 1 mission of economic growth, while restoring our natural environment. I have four big priorities: cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas; backing British farmers and our food industry; restoring nature; and delivering a sanitary and phytosanitary deal with the EU. \p Pam Cox: Today I am hosting pupils from Colchester academy in Greenstead in my constituency. They and their families want a clean River Colne. Will the Secretary of State set out what the Government are doing to hold Anglian Water to account, and whether she is seeing an improvement in its performance? \p Emma Reynolds: I thank my hon. Friend for campaigning on these issues. We have already banned bonuses in six water companies, including Anglian Water, as she will know, for not meeting our high standards. That is a powerful incentive for companies to deliver immediate improvements and rebuild public trust. Together, I hope that we can rebuild public trust in our water system for generations to come. \p Lindsay Hoyle: I call the shadow Secretary of State. \p Victoria Atkins: I welcome the right hon. Lady and the Minister with responsibility for farming to their new roles. We Conservative Members genuinely wish them well in this food and farming emergency. The seriousness of that emergency was made clear to me last night by the agricultural chaplain of Suffolk. He told me about the devastating impact that he sees the family farm tax having: the father of two small children who took his life because of fears about the tax, the 92-year-old grandmother who has told her family calmly that she will not be here in April because she wants to beat the tax deadline, and the teenager who walked in to find his father’s body. The chaplain said to me, “This tax will live with that poor boy for the rest of his life.” All that has happened since the Secretary of State took office, and it is happening across the country. Why does she support this tax? \p Emma Reynolds: This is a highly sensitive issue. The reasons for somebody taking their life are often very complex, and my heart goes out to every family devastated by these events. I am not willing to make political points on this issue. \p Victoria Atkins: I am not making political points; I am telling the right hon. Lady the reality of her policy. Farmers will have heard no answer, no reason and no understanding. It is shameful. With 13 days to go until the Budget, let me point out that there are enormous economic costs, too. Millions of advisers, businesses and constituents, the 10 largest supermarket chains, multiple food manufacturers, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and the Welsh Affairs Committee think that this is a bad tax, badly done. The Conservatives will axe this tax. Given that the Secretary of State has admitted this week that Ministers in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have “made mistakes” this year, will she finally admit that the family farm and family business taxes are some of those mistakes? \p Emma Reynolds: I live in a rural area, represent a semi-rural seat, and have 89 farms in my constituency. I understand the pressures that farmers are under, but the catastrophic mistake made by the previous Government was that they could not even be bothered to spend the farming budget. We have put more Government money in the hands of more farmers than ever before, and we have put a record number of farmers in the environmental land management schemes. We will soon publish the Batters review on farm profitability. We are not keeping that review under wraps, by the way; the House will soon hear more about it. The Conservatives did nothing on the issue when they were in power. We have appointed the nation’s first tenant farming commissioner, and we will set out a 25-year road map for farming next year. \p Several hon. Members: rose— \p Lindsay Hoyle: Those were very important opening statements, but these are topical questions. We have about five minutes to go, and some Members will not get in now, so I do not know why they are standing to catch my eye.