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Miss Widdecombe: The Minister has three minutes left in which to answer my debate, having already taken a quarter of an hour. Do I gather from what he has said so far that, to the simple question, "What will this Government do to alleviate the current problems with farmers' incomes?" his answer is, "Nothing at all"?
Mr. Rooker: We are going to provide more money fast. We have already announced support of £85 million. If the right hon. Lady says that that does not matter and that no one wants it, she is wrong. We have promised that that will be paid, if possible, by the end of March and certainly by Easter. That is the aim.
Mr. Michael Jack (Fylde) rose--
Mr. Rooker: I am not giving way again, because I have only a couple of minutes left.
The right hon. Lady raised many other issues. She has what I would call a chocolate-box image of the countryside. There are enormous difficulties and deprivation in the countryside. It is not the idyllic place she describes when she talks about the green belt. We are reversing the building programme in the green belt that we inherited from the previous Government. It is not urban dwellers who are digging up hedgerows and over-using pesticides. The image she presents is totally wrong.
Mr. Rooker:
I am not giving way to the right hon. Gentleman, because everyone knows that, at 10.30 pm, the debate finishes. I was hoping to ask him and the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald to deny that, this year, £1.7 billion is going to the livestock industry. The idea that we are doing nothing is ludicrous beyond belief. We are giving the livestock industry--
Mr. Deputy Speaker:
Order. The Minister has said that he is not going to give way, and this is, of course, a Back-Bench debate.
Mr. Rooker:
In 1997-98, we are giving the livestock industry £1.7 billion. By anyone's standards, that is a massive sum of public expenditure. Conservative Members say, "Give more." We are working to the budget that we inherited from the Conservatives--[Interruption.]--including the mouthy Conservative Front Bencher, the right hon. Member for Fylde (Mr. Jack), who shouts from a sedentary position.
The Government recognise the concern felt by farmers about the pressures faced by their industry and in particular about the immediate effect on farm incomes. We are doing what we can within the constraints of the European Union and the budget we inherited from the previous Government, consistent with our responsibilities to the rest of the population. Unlike the previous Government, we are pledged to work quickly for the long-term future of United Kingdom farming by seeking common agricultural policy reforms. During the presidency, we will do all we can to ensure our success and to ensure that our successors have to take matters forward.
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