Farm Incomes (Hansard, 4 December 1980)

§ 9. Mr. Marlow
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, on the basis of existing production, consumption and world market prices, how much the United Kingdom would have to pay to sustain farm incomes at the current level; and what would be the savings to consumers on both the retail price index and food price index if the United Kingdom were to leave the common agricultural policy and introduce a system of cheap food and deficiency payments similar to that which operated in the 1960s.

§ Mr. Peter Walker
No satisfactory estimates can be made, because they would involve hypothetical assumptions about the precise arrangements involved and about the effect of these on import prices.

§ Mr. Marlow
Does my right hon. Friend agree with me that a common agricultural policy which forces the poor, the infirm, the elderly, the unemployed and the one-parent family to pay up to twice the necessary price for food is perverse, unjust and unacceptable? Will he undertake to the House that he will not cease in the fervent application of his renowned qualities as an administrator and a propagandist until such time as we in this country are able to get Continental food at world prices, and also until such time as agricultural surpluses are paid for in the Continental countries in which they arise?

§ Mr. Walker
Some of the old and infirm would be very strange if they were taken in by the suggestion of my hon. Friend that prices are double what they should be because of the policy. I can only point out to him, given his great lust for Britain to depend upon world prices, what has happened with sugar. A year ago the world price of sugar was £125 a tonne below the European price. Now it is £90 above the European price, which shows how unreliable it would be to depend upon world prices.

§ Mr. Maclennan
Does the Minister agree that the remarks by his hon. Friend the Member for Northampton, North (Mr. Marlow) are part of the dud prospectus to which the Lord Privy Seal referred yesterday and that the policies advocated by a large number of Conservative Members are inconsistent with membership of the Common Market? Will he also say why he has to sound plus royaliste que le roi in defending the CAP? Whom is he seeking to impress?

§ Mr. Walker
Nobody has tried harder or succeeded more than this Government in putting price limitations upon those areas in surplus. The CAP is a fundamental and basic part of the European Community and it gives security of food supplies to Europe. That is of considerable importance.

§ Mr. Nicholas Winterton
Does my right hon. Friend agree that until the CAP is reformed the poultry industry in Britain will continue to suffer from unfair competition? Will he consider banning imports from the Continent which do not meet our standards? Alternatively, will he relax the standards of inspection in this country to ensure that the British poultry industry does not continue to face unfair competition, which has resulted in the closure of slaughterhouses and many farms, leading to many people being put on the dole?

§ Mr. Walker
With his interest in this topic, my hon. Friend will know that we persuaded the Commission to inquire into the fact that the regulations were not applied with uniformity, or payment for them was not made with uniformity, throughout the Community. As a result of that, a report was made confirming our allegations. I have now received from the Commissioner a promise that new proposals will be made at the January meeting of the Agriculture Council.

§ Mr. Mason
Is it not a fact that if the right hon. Gentleman fully revalued the green pound he would save the average family up to 75p a week on its food bill and on a full year of the present positive monetary compensatory amounts he would save the United Kingdom up to £150 million in Common Market contributions? Why is the right hon. Gentleman taxing the food consumer so much and punishing the taxpayer as well?

§ Mr. Walker
It is extraordinary, given that the right hon. Gentleman's Government doubled the price of food during their period in office and that his party in Opposition claims to want full employment, that he should deplore a system that gives some advantage to our exports and is detrimental to our imports.

§ Mr. Mason
Is the right hon. Gentleman taxing food imports from the EEC or not?

§ Mr. Walker
We are not, because the MCA system does not operate as a tax. If it did, food prices would have gone down under the previous Government instead of doubling.