National Farmers' Union (Hansard, 22 June 1978)

§ 10. Mr. Michael Spicer
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he plans next to meet representatives of the National Farmers' Union.

§ 16. Mr. Temple-Morris
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he next intends to meet the president of the National Farmers' Union.

§ Mr. John Silkin
I am planning to meet the president and representatives of the National Farmers' Union next month, but a date has still to be fixed.

§ Mr. Spicer
When the Minister meets the president of the National Farmers' Union will he give him a categorical assurance that the Government have no intention of nationalising agricultural land?

§ Mr. Silkin
I am meeting the president of the National Farmers' Union and representatives of the union at his request. It will be for the president to ask what he will. If the hon. Gentleman has any influence with him, he will, no doubt, see that that item is put on the agenda.

§ Mr. Temple-Morris
With respect, I must ask the Minister to answer the question put by my hon. Friend the Member for Worcestershire, South (Mr. Spicer). There has been mention recently in the agricultural Press that the Labour Party is about to come forward with proposals for the nationalisation of land, and wilder and more extreme elements are even hinting that the Minister may have some sympathy with these ideas. I ask him to reassure the House.

§ Mr. Silkin
I do not think that this has anything to do with what I tell the president of the National Farmers' Union, unless he asks me, but I shall certainly answer the question, irrelevant though it may be. The answer is simple. The Government have no plans to nationalise agricultural land, because it was not in the Labour Party manifesto at the last election.

§ Mr. Torney
When my right hon. Friend next meets representatives of the NFU, will he ask them to tell him of the latest state of affairs in the bacon curing industry? Will he discuss with them the serious unemployment plight in that industry, due to the Common Market policy of allowing import subsidies on Danish bacon, and, further, will he discuss the fact that there have already been many thousands of redundancies and that we are now threatened with the closure of many firms? Will he tell the EEC that we must act unilaterally to save this industry?

§ Mr. Silkin
I have a great deal of sympathy with the bacon processors and with those employed in that sector of the industry. In part, the trouble is that, while producer prices have recently been going up—as they have been—that, and the effect of the wrongly calculated Danish MCA's, has caught the processors between an upper and a nether milestone. I think that the change in the MCA rate of about 8 per cent.—£20 a tonne—which, I think I am right in saying, is to come in next week, will make some difference. Whether, therefore, the president of the National Farmers' Union will raise the matter with me, I do not know.

§ Mr. Wiggin
When the Minister meets Sir Henry Plumb, will he explain to him why it is now impossible for a young man to find a farm to rent, and will he further explain that, although nearly half the front page of the annual June return deals with the change in the occupancy of farms, his hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary still does not know how many farms are let each year? Will the right hon. Gentleman refute the idea that the Ministry does not know, since it does know?

§ Mr. Silkin
I greatly doubt that the opportunity will be given to me to discuss that with the president of the National Farmers' Union. But I should say that he and his union have given their evidence to the Northfield inquiry. The first sentence of the hon. Gentleman's supplementary question expressed precisely why, a year ago, I set up the Northfield inquiry to find out exactly what has happened in the acquisition and ownership of agricultural land. Nobody knows, save for whatever evidence has already been accumulated by the Northfield Committee.

§ Mr. Roderick
Will my right hon. Friend take special note of any representations which may be made on behalf of producer-retailers of milk and on the sale of untreated milk? Will he adopt a flexible approach to this problem, since there are isolated pockets in this country where no doorstep delivery will take place if these people are forced out of business?

§ Mr. Silkin
I want to be as flexible as I can on this matter and I have tried to meet the point which I take my hon. Friend to make. I did it by extending the necessary consultations until the end of next month. I wish to put the position absolutely fairly to the House and the industry. If I, as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, am aware, as I am, that there have been about 384—I think that that is the figure —cases of disease as a result of untreated milk, I am clearly under a duty to examine the matter and say what I ought to do. I have asked for all the evidence I can get. I hope that doctors, farmers and consumers will get in touch with me. That is precisely why I extended the period for the consultations.

Mr. Wells
I hope that when the Minister meets the president of the NFU part of his discussions will be concerned with horticulture. In particular, will he talk to Sir Henry about the problems of Stratford market, which are uppermost in the minds of many hon. Members who have visited that market in recent weeks?

§ Mr. Silkin
I believe that if the hon. Gentleman—he is my Member of Parliament, although he rarely, if ever, gets my vote—were to write to me about that, I might be well briefed to talk to Sir Henry on the matter even if he does not raise it with me.