§ 15. Mr. SkinnerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what recent meetings he has had with 511 other EU Ministers regarding animal exports; and if he will make a statement. [31176]
§ Mr. Douglas HoggMy predecessor reported the outcome of the latest meeting of the Agriculture Council in an oral statement to the House on 22 June. At that meeting the Council reached agreement on a comprehensive framework of law covering the welfare of animals transported throughout the European Community.
§ Mr. SkinnerThe Minister will not be surprised to learn that I will not be congratulating him on his—[Interruption.]—sideways move. I do not think that his father would have been all that impressed. In the Earl of Warwick's Government, the lion king—[Interruption.]Is the Minister aware that at that last meeting the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was whining and whingeing about the fact that he had been up all night, penned in, negotiating for several hours and that at the end of it, the Council decided to force sheep and cattle to travel for 31 hours? How would this Hogg like to be penned up for 31 hours?
§ Mr. HoggWell, for the past five and a half years I have been answering questions of a fairly statesmanlike character. I now go back, I see, to the cockpit. I am bound to say that, with a name like Hogg, it is rather an apt appointment. As regards my right hon. Friend's statement in June, he secured an extraordinarily good agreement. Of course, it is only the first step and we will do more, but it is extraordinarily curmudgeonly of the hon. Gentleman not to give credit where credit is due.