§ Mr. RookerMy right hon. Friend the Minister is pressing for radical reform of the dairy regime in Brussels. This will be in the long-term interests of the UK dairy industry as a whole.
§ Mr. GrayDoes the Minister not realise that the 250 dairy farmers in North Wiltshire are now close to desperation? Does he accept that his failure to apply for EU compensatory payments is painting the bleakest possible picture for mixed family farms in my constituency—the worst in the history of modern agriculture—and that his 479 mishandling of yesterday's announcement will contribute to that feeling of desperation among my farmers? I challenge the Minister to join me in Chippenham market, where I shall be tomorrow, to explain to those farmers why he chose the safest possible option under the SEAC recommendations—the option that will mean more desperation for beef and milk farmers?
§ Mr. RookerWe plead guilty to choosing safest options. I do not know the specifics of the hon. Gentleman's farmers—he seems to claim ownership of them—but the fact is that dairy farming is one of the most profitable sectors of British agriculture—[Interruption.] I repeat, it is one of the most profitable sectors of British agriculture.
The EU dairy regime is a major obstacle in the way of our dairy farmers getting their products on the world market. That is why my right hon. Friend is working hard in Brussels to remove that obstacle.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursWas not option 1 the easy option—the option that the Conservatives adopted over the past 10 years and which created the crisis in agriculture today? Now they complain about it and demand that we spend public money on it.
§ Mr. RookerI completely agree with my hon. Friend.
§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonDoes the Minister accept that dairy and beef farming go together and depend on each other? There are a great many dairy and beef farmers in Macclesfield and Cheshire, and my family have been involved in and associated with farming for more than 150 years. I am deeply depressed by the problems facing the industry at the moment. I am pleased that the Minister of Agriculture is on the Treasury Bench to hear me say that every sector of the UK farming industry is depressed—a phenomenon that I have never known in my 25 years in the House, and which my family have not known in their 150 years of association with farming. Will the Government do something to alleviate the plight of agriculture?
§ Mr. RookerI will not bandy family memberships of this House with the hon. Gentleman, except to say that he does double up in a way that I cannot—
§ Mr. RookerIt was not cheap: the hon. Member for Macclesfield (Mr. Winterton) raised the issue himself. There are problems with fluctuations in the currency. Livestock premium payments, however, will be wholly unaffected by the 14 per cent, change in the sterling rate this year, and arable payments for 1997 will be only 3 per cent, lower than in 1996. I repeat again: dairy farming is one of the most profitable sectors in British agriculture.