Dairy Farming

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire (Mr. Crabb) for securing the debate. He is one of the most active members of the all-party group. When I was first elected in 2005, Mr. Jones, a dairy farmer near Shrewsbury, explained to me the seriousness of the situation facing the dairy sector. It was his lobbying that convinced me to go to see supermarket bosses. In my naivety, I thought that as an elected Member of Parliament I could demand to see the chief executives and haul them into the House of Commons to speak to them. Some of them did send representatives to speak to me and discuss my concerns, but they were very arrogant. They said that they were doing all that they could and that any regulation would be unviable. They tried to do all they could to deter me from pursuing the matter. That is why I set up the all-party group on dairy farmers. That is the way we do things in the House of Commons: we work together on a cross-party basis to lobby Government on issues that are of importance to us and our constituents. I am very pleased to say that the all-party group on dairy farmers is one of the largest all-party groups in the House of Commons, with more than 120 Members of Parliament. The leader of my party, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron), is a member of the all-party group and should he be elected to the office of Prime Minister I will ensure that I keep reminding him of the fact that he joined the group. If any hon. Member here today has not joined the all-party group on dairy farmers, I would ask them to see me after the debate, to ensure that they join. I very much welcome the report from the Conservative party, saying that, if we are elected to office, an ombudsman-regulator will be appointed to regulate the supermarkets. I will hold a Conservative Government to account on this issue and ensure that they make the appointment in a very speedy way. I will also ensure that, as the hon. Member for Ceredigion (Mark Williams) has suggested, the ombudsman-regulator has proper teeth and specific guidelines, so that they can help dairy farmers in their discussions and negotiations with these all-powerful supermarkets. The all-party group on dairy farmers issued a report in the autumn of 2006 and we presented it to the then Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who is now the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and to the then shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for East Surrey (Mr. Ainsworth). The main thrust of that report was to seek to have a regulator or ombudsman for supermarkets. Our group has been pushing for that appointment for the past three years. Initially, I was told, "Impossible. You're never going to get a regulator for supermarkets. It's totally unrealistic, a pipe dream. Just forget about it." So it just shows that, if someone perseveres, feels passionately about an issue, never accepts a no and keeps plugging away, ultimately—hopefully—success will come. The all-party group on dairy farmers visited the European Parliament on a cross-party basis to meet the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs. Fischer Boel. She said that she felt that part of the problem was that we had too many milk processors in the United Kingdom. She also said that a certain amount of consolidation within the United Kingdom market would not be a bad thing. I would like the Minister to note that she said that the European Union would not interfere if there were certain consolidation in the dairy sector. In her own country, Denmark, Arla has 80 per cent. of the milk processing. She said that that was one of the most important factors in Denmark; the strength of Arla in its discussions and negotiations with supermarkets. Therefore, that is something that I would like to promote. My hon. Friend the Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire and others have spoken about bovine tuberculosis. Bovine TB is absolutely devastating in Shropshire and it has increased at a massive rate in the past few years. My hon. Friend talked about the emotion of this issue and that struck a chord with me. I have sat with some of the farmers in my constituency. I will mention one, Mr. Chris Bulmer of Snailbeach. We basically sat together at his kitchen table, having tea, and I have to say that we both got rather emotional about the issue of bovine TB. I am not prone to being overtly emotional with constituents, but this was an extremely emotional matter. People such as Mr. Bulmer live for their farms and their animals, and when they see the extraordinary suffering and wanton slaughter of their animals that has to go on, it is very upsetting. One of the most difficult things that I have had to do in my constituency is speaking to the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, addressing 500 of its members. The first question to me was, "Well, Mr. Kawczynski you horrible chap, why do you want to kill all those lovely badgers?" Of course, the emblem of the Wildlife Trusts movement is a badger and so passionate are the members of the Shropshire Wildlife Trust about badgers that they have even taken my wife and me to look at a badger sett in my constituency. They gave my daughter a cuddly badger soft toy, which I think was a bribe to encourage us to think nicely of badgers. The problem is that, although we all like badgers, badgers themselves suffer terribly as a result of this disease. I have to say that the next Conservative Government must tackle this issue of badgers and I expect to see a limited cull of badgers, should a Conservative Government be elected to office. I make no bones about saying that, because I am absolutely convinced that culling must be part of the process of controlling badgers, no matter how controversial it is. I just want to talk very briefly about the Rural Payments Agency. I must say that I am still trying to sort out problems with the RPA on behalf of various constituents. Some dairy farmers are still grappling with this issue, on top of bovine TB and the low prices they receive for their milk. I will mention to the Minister one of my constituents, Mr. Hamer of Longden, who is still having terrible problems with RPA payments and I very much hope that he can help Mr. Hamer with those problems. Lastly, the all-party group on dairy farmers will be meeting shortly. Among those coming are representatives of the Farmers' Union of Wales, the Dairy Farmers of Scotland and the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers. I must say that sometimes when we have these meetings, not enough Members of Parliament attend, because of their other commitments. So I will be sending every MP who has attended this debate notification of the next meeting of the all-party group on dairy farmers. As I have said, we have a lot of representatives of different farming organisations coming and I would be grateful if Members of Parliament who are here today attended the next meeting of the all-party group.