Mr Luke Charters

As chair of the all-party parliamentary group for food security, I have been working across the House to ensure that we work towards affordable food that is available and accessible to everyone. Yet from some of the contributions I have heard from Conservative Members, it is clear that over the past 14 years they have not reflected on how they have failed rural communities. We would not be here today if they had held the mantle on food security. Our farmers already have low confidence because the Conservatives eroded their trust, but our rural communities are not a political football. They deserve respect. They want action, not words. If the Opposition think that rural affairs is tricky ground for those on the Labour Benches, they can well and truly think again. Just look at our new crop of Labour MPs. We won seats right across the country, from Scarborough to south Pembrokeshire. The farming community has firm friends on the Labour Benches. Let me turn to work that the Government are doing, from unlocking precision breeding to launching a new deal for farmers. The Government’s work on food security transcends the work of a single Department, from seeking to secure a new veterinary agreement to launching GB Energy, which will lower production costs. We are also paving the way on flood resilience. If I may, I will draw on some local context in York. I visited a fantastic carrot farm in York Outer, but I was gobsmacked to hear that in a bad year of flooding it can lose a quarter of its crop. I dread to think about the impacts if we do not turn the tide of climate change. That is why I urge the continuation of critical resilience funds to support farmers like the one I met. Water scarcity is a critical issue. There are real pressures, despite the wettest 18 months on record. It must be 30 years since we last built a reservoir, and farmers struggle from drought, too.