Rural affairs must be more than a political after thought

BOTH PARLIAMENT and the Government have been suspected of neglecting rural issues for too long – and recent events back this up.

The first was last week’s debate on rural productivity which, for the record, contributes more than £ 260bn to England’s economy each year.

It was held in the Westminster Hall ante- chamber, as opposed to the House of Commons itself. It was limited to just under an hour and speeches had to reflect the pressure on time.

This offered no chance to scrutinise Treasury minister Kemi Badenoch’s response when she said that the Government was “determined to help rural areas harness their full economic potential”.

How? She did not elaborate. But she added: “We will not forget that rural communities have their own needs and challenge.”

This assertion, too, demanded challenge and rebuttal. Was it a signal that the Government will rural- proof future policies or empty words? I suspect the latter and but hope I’m proved wrong.

And then the Downing Street meeting between Boris Johnson and NFU president Minette Batters to discuss the Agricultural Bill – and insufficient safeguards for farmers and food producers in post- Brexit trade deals.

She wants the Trade and Agriculture Commission to have far more powers so agreements can be judged in terms of animal welfare, food safety and the environment. Yet it will exist for just six months.

Ms Batters noted that the Prime Minister “looked surprised when I made the point that the US has exactly the same thing, an independent trade commission that reports into Congress”.

She went on: “He said ‘ Oh right, I hadn’t realised’.” Despite this, Batters was sympathetic. She said the PM looked exhausted.

But she does say that Defra – and the Department for International Trade – are on “different pathways” and the PM has to act.

“He is overrun with things, some small, some huge to be sorted out, but it is clear to me now that he just has to make a decision, however tired he is; we can’t just drift towards disaster,” she added.

“So many people care desperately about upholding the values of food production in the country.”

Perhaps the country wouldn’t be in this position if rural affairs was a political and economic priority – and not the afterthought that it has been allowed to be become.

SHEFFIELD Hallam MP Olivia Blake has rightly said sorry for her role in the city’s tree- felling scandal in the wake of a damning report by the Ombudsman.

She became deputy leader of the city council in 2017 when the policy was being enforced and clearly accepts responsibility for her part in this wanton civic environmental destruction.

What she’s not apologised for, however, is her rank hypocrisy in Parliament after being elected in 2019 in succession to the infamous Jared O’Mara.

In her maiden speech in January, Blake, whose mother Judith is leader of Leeds City Council, vowed to fight to “save our environment”. In a debate on climate justice, she ventured: “Climate crisis is a threat to us all, but we do not all face it equally.”

And in debates on the Environment Bill in February, the Labour MP accused Ministers of taking insufficient steps “to secure our natural environment”.

She also said: “It is right that we legislate to protect the environment, our water and the air we breathe.” What she did not say, however, is whether she had Sheffield Council in mind – but Hansard notes the backbencher has not uttered the word ‘‘ tree’’ since she joined Parliament. I wonder why...

THERE is dismay that the Department for Transport is not pressing ahead with plans for a direct rail link to Doncaster Sheffield Airport – and GatewayEast regeneration site which has the potential to employ around 35,000 people.

It is one of the most short- sighted decisions ever when it comes to investing in the North’s transport infrastructure and there’s no shortage of candidates to choose from. But what dismays airport bosses is the lack of communication from Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.

They have been repeatedly pressing for the Minister to visit the site himself – and that transport isn’t a problem. After all, Shapps is a keen pilot. Or he could catch a train from his Welwyn Hatfield constituency direct to Doncaster and then travel by bus – or Shanks’s pony – to the airport.

He might then realise, they hope, that the DfT needs to look again at this scheme with a bit more foresight.

TORY deputy chief whip Stuart Andrew, the Pudsey MP, looked very pleased with himself, pootling in and out of the Commons fairly aimlessly, after he helped corrall sufficent backbenchers to vote against a Labour motion calling for an extension of free school meals.

I wouldn’t be. Tory whips emailed colleagues with a memo on key political points to make in a debate inspired by footballer Marcus Rashford’s campaign to address child poverty, including the fact “that Labour didn’t offer free school meals during holidays”. They weren’t in power during a pandemic.

And then the shouting match between Bradford MP Naz Skah and Jonathan Gullis, a Stoke MP, that came hours after incendiary exchanges that saw Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner describe a Tory as “scum”, deny it – and then issue an apology hours later.

If professional footballers behaved like this, they would expect yellow or red cards. Perhaps the same should be intrdouced to Parliament – with or without the VAR video review system.