Artillery Row

Free traders win round one

The Agriculture Bill was cleared of all protectionist amendments

The Agriculture Bill has passed the Report Stage in the House of Commons by 360 to 211 votes – unamended by rebels, much to the relief of the Department for International Trade who feared additions to the bill would scupper the UK’s chance of striking free trade deals.

Two similar amendments by Tory MPs were particularly concerning to the free traders in Government. Simon Hoare and Neil Parish both tabled new clauses aimed at stopping any agricultural goods under a trade agreement from being imported if they were made with lower standards than the UK has.

The amendments had a large amount of support from opposition benches but not enough Tory MPs were swayed. For example, Tory MP David Johnston said he considered voting for them but he was not convinced that it would help farmers’ ability to export in the long run.

Just before voting began, Simon Hoare withdrew his amendment and threw his weight behind the similar Neil Parish amendment (NC2), remarking that the House of Lords was likely to support it. This was an attempt to focus protectionists onto one amendment increasing the chance to get it through – but in the end the amendment was voted down by 328 to 277. But the Government will not be happy with the fact that 36 Tory MPs did not vote against the amendment – There were 21 outright rebels and 15 abstentions from Conservative MPs.

Winding up, Junior environment Minister Victoria Prentis pointed out that importing meat that had been washing by anything other than drinking water was against UK regulations – a reference to the ‘chlorinated chicken’ that US producers are supposedly lining up to sell to the UK.

The new remote voting system – the first time it was used on a Government Bill, was operated by those sitting in the chamber as well as MPs sitting at home but there have been issues. A number of MPs voted the wrong way by accident on the Parish amendment and informed Deputy Speaker Eleanor Laing. There is a provision for MPs to change their vote afterwards but Laing reassured the house that the small number of errors would not have affected the result. Labour MPs Harriet Harman and Kate Osborne appear to have rebelled by accident and voted against the Parish amendment – the only Labour MPs to do so. Pauline Latham made a genuine mistake and was not a willing rebel and the Chancellor Rishi Sunak – an unlikely rebel – made a mistake too and apologised to the Prime Minister.

Curiously, Tory MP Claire Coutinho, Rishi Sunak’s former Spad, tweeted before the vote that she was not supporting Simon Hoare’s amendment but in the end voted in favour of the anti-free trade NC2. A source informs me that whatever she might say about this supposed ‘error’, she’s not somebody who supports free trade deals.

A number of Government amendments were made without division (by MPs within the chamber indicating their consent by way of shouting ‘aye’) but no other amendments were successful.

I have written previously about the protectionist lobby in parliament to which some cabinet ministers also belong, but this is definitely round one to the free traders.

 

The results of the Neil Parish amendment are below:

277 MPs voted for the motion including 183 Labour MPs, 44 Scottish National Party MPs, 22 Conservative MPs (all rebels except for Rishi Sunak and Pauline Latham who made a mistake), all 11 Liberal Democrat MPs, all 8 Democratic Unionist Party MPs, all 4 Plaid Cymru MPs, all 2 Social Democratic & Labour Party MPs, 1 Alliance MP, 1 Green Party MP, and 1 Independent MP.

328 Voted against –  326 Conservative MPs, and 2 rebel Labour MPs (probably by accident).  A further 45 did not vote in the division.

THE 277 MPs WHO SUPPORTED THE MOTION

Alliance

  1. Stephen Farry

Conservative (rebels)

  1. Bob Blackman
  2. Claire Coutinho
  3. Tracey Crouch
  4. Roger Gale
  5. John Hayes
  6. Gordon Henderson
  7. Simon Hoare
  8. Neil Hudson
  9. Simon Jupp
  10. Pauline Latham – (an error)
  11. Ian Liddell-Grainger
  12. Chris Loder
  13. Jason McCartney
  14. David Morris
  15. Caroline Nokes
  16. Neil Parish
  17. David Simmonds
  18. Gary Streeter
  19. Julian Sturdy
  20. Rishi Sunak – (an error) 
  21. Theresa Villiers
  22. David Warburton

Democratic Unionist Party

  1. Gregory Campbell
  2. Jeffrey M Donaldson
  3. Paul Girvan
  4. Carla Lockhart
  5. Ian Paisley
  6. Gavin Robinson
  7. Jim Shannon
  8. Sammy Wilson

Green Party

  1. Caroline Lucas

Independent

  1. Neale Hanvey

Labour

  1. Diane Abbott
  2. Debbie Abrahams
  3. Tahir Ali
  4. Rosena Allin-Khan
  5. Mike Amesbury
  6. Fleur Anderson
  7. Tonia Antoniazzi
  8. Jonathan Ashworth
  9. Paula Barker
  10. Margaret Beckett
  11. Hilary Benn
  12. Clive Betts
  13. Olivia Blake
  14. Paul Blomfield
  15. Tracy Brabin
  16. Ben Bradshaw
  17. Kevin Brennan
  18. Nicholas Brown
  19. Lyn Brown
  20. Chris Bryant
  21. Karen Buck
  22. Richard Burgon
  23. Dawn Butler
  24. Ian Byrne
  25. Liam Byrne
  26. Ruth Cadbury
  27. Alan Campbell
  28. Dan Carden
  29. Sarah Champion
  30. Bambos Charalambous
  31. Feryal Clark
  32. Rosie Cooper
  33. Yvette Cooper
  34. Jeremy Corbyn
  35. Neil Coyle
  36. Stella Creasy
  37. Jon Cruddas
  38. John Cryer
  39. Judith Cummins
  40. Alex Cunningham
  41. Wayne David
  42. Geraint Davies
  43. Alex Davies-Jones
  44. Marsha De Cordova
  45. Thangam Debbonaire
  46. Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi
  47. Anneliese Dodds
  48. Stephen Doughty
  49. Peter Dowd
  50. Rosie Duffield
  51. Maria Eagle
  52. Angela Eagle
  53. Clive Efford
  54. Julie Elliott
  55. Chris Elmore
  56. Florence Eshalomi
  57. Bill Esterson
  58. Chris Evans
  59. Colleen Fletcher
  60. Yvonne Fovargue
  61. Vicky Foxcroft
  62. Gill Furniss
  63. Barry Gardiner
  64. Preet Kaur Gill
  65. Mary Glindon
  66. Kate Green
  67. Lilian Greenwood
  68. Nia Griffith
  69. Andrew Gwynne
  70. Louise Haigh
  71. Fabian Hamilton
  72. Emma Hardy
  73. Carolyn Harris
  74. Helen Hayes
  75. Mike Hill
  76. Meg Hillier
  77. Margaret Hodge
  78. Sharon Hodgson
  79. Kate Hollern
  80. Rachel Hopkins
  81. George Howarth
  82. Rupa Huq
  83. Imran Hussain
  84. Dan Jarvis
  85. Diana Johnson
  86. Kim Johnson
  87. Darren Jones
  88. Gerald Jones
  89. Kevan Jones
  90. Ruth Jones
  91. Sarah Jones
  92. Mike Kane
  93. Barbara Keeley
  94. Liz Kendall
  95. Afzal Khan
  96. Stephen Kinnock
  97. Peter Kyle
  98. Ian Lavery
  99. Emma Lewell-Buck
  100. Clive Lewis
  101. Rebecca Long Bailey
  102. Holly Lynch
  103. Justin Madders
  104. Khalid Mahmood
  105. Seema Malhotra
  106. Rachael Maskell
  107. Christian Matheson
  108. Steve McCabe
  109. Kerry McCarthy
  110. Siobhain McDonagh
  111. Andy McDonald
  112. John McDonnell
  113. Conor McGinn
  114. Alison McGovern
  115. Catherine McKinnell
  116. Anna McMorrin
  117. Ian Mearns
  118. Edward Miliband
  119. Navendu Mishra
  120. Jessica Morden
  121. Stephen Morgan
  122. Grahame Morris
  123. Ian Murray
  124. James Murray
  125. Lisa Nandy
  126. Charlotte Nichols
  127. Alex Norris
  128. Chi Onwurah
  129. Abena Oppong-Asare
  130. Kate Osamor
  131. Taiwo Owatemi
  132. Sarah Owen
  133. Stephanie Peacock
  134. Matthew Pennycook
  135. Jess Phillips
  136. Bridget Phillipson
  137. Luke Pollard
  138. Lucy Powell
  139. Yasmin Qureshi
  140. Angela Rayner
  141. Steve Reed
  142. Christina Rees
  143. Ellie Reeves
  144. Rachel Reeves
  145. Jonathan Reynolds
  146. Bell Ribeiro-Addy
  147. Marie Rimmer
  148. Matt Rodda
  149. Lloyd Russell-Moyle
  150. Naz Shah
  151. Virendra Sharma
  152. Barry Sheerman
  153. Tulip Siddiq
  154. Andy Slaughter
  155. Cat Smith
  156. Jeff Smith
  157. Nick Smith
  158. Karin Smyth
  159. Alex Sobel
  160. John Spellar
  161. Keir Starmer
  162. Jo Stevens
  163. Wes Streeting
  164. Zarah Sultana
  165. Mark Tami
  166. Sam Tarry
  167. Nick Thomas-Symonds
  168. Emily Thornberry
  169. Stephen Timms
  170. Jon Trickett
  171. Karl Turner
  172. Derek Twigg
  173. Liz Twist
  174. Valerie Vaz
  175. Claudia Webbe
  176. Catherine West
  177. Matt Western
  178. Alan Whitehead
  179. Mick Whitley
  180. Nadia Whittome
  181. Beth Winter
  182. Mohammad Yasin
  183. Daniel Zeichner

Liberal Democrat

  1. Alistair Carmichael
  2. Wendy Chamberlain
  3. Daisy Cooper
  4. Edward Davey
  5. Tim Farron
  6. Wera Hobhouse
  7. Christine Jardine
  8. Layla Moran
  9. Sarah Olney
  10. Jamie Stone
  11. Munira Wilson

Plaid Cymru

  1. Jonathan Edwards
  2. Ben Lake
  3. Liz Saville Roberts
  4. Hywel Williams

Scottish National Party

  1. Hannah Bardell
  2. Mhairi Black
  3. Ian Blackford
  4. Kirsty Blackman
  5. Deidre Brock
  6. Alan Brown
  7. Amy Callaghan
  8. Lisa Cameron
  9. Douglas Chapman
  10. Joanna Cherry
  11. Ronnie Cowan
  12. Angela Crawley
  13. Martyn Day
  14. Martin Docherty-Hughes
  15. Dave Doogan
  16. Allan Dorans
  17. Marion Fellows
  18. Margaret Ferrier
  19. Stephen Flynn
  20. Patricia Gibson
  21. Patrick Grady
  22. Peter Grant
  23. Neil Gray
  24. Drew Hendry
  25. Stewart Hosie
  26. Chris Law
  27. David Linden
  28. Kenny MacAskill
  29. Angus Brendan MacNeil
  30. Stewart Malcolm McDonald
  31. Stuart C McDonald
  32. Anne McLaughlin
  33. John McNally
  34. Gavin Newlands
  35. John Nicolson
  36. Brendan O’Hara
  37. Kirsten Oswald
  38. Tommy Sheppard
  39. Alyn Smith
  40. Alison Thewliss
  41. Owen Thompson
  42. Richard Thomson
  43. Philippa Whitford
  44. Pete Wishart

Social Democratic & Labour Party

  1. Colum Eastwood
  2. Claire Hanna

THE 45 MPs WHO DID NOT VOTE IN THE DIVISION

Conservative

  1. Peter Aldous
  2. David Amess
  3. Steve Brine
  4. Fiona Bruce
  5. Conor Burns
  6. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown
  7. Philip Dunne
  8. George Freeman
  9. Robert Jenrick
  10. Robert Largan
  11. Karl McCartney
  12. Sheryll Murray
  13. Andrew Percy
  14. William Wragg
  15. Jeremy Wright

Labour

  1. Rushanara Ali
  2. Apsana Begum
  3. Janet Daby
  4. Jack Dromey
  5. Mary Kelly Foy
  6. Margaret Greenwood
  7. John Healey
  8. Mark Hendrick
  9. David Lammy
  10. Tony Lloyd
  11. Shabana Mahmood
  12. Pat McFadden
  13. Jim McMahon
  14. Toby Perkins
  15. Graham Stringer
  16. Gareth Thomas

Scottish National Party

  1. Steven Bonnar
  2. Carol Monaghan
  3. Chris Stephens

THE 328 MPs WHO OPPOSED THE MOTION

Conservative (Loyalists)

  1. Nigel Adams
  2. Bim Afolami
  3. Adam Afriyie
  4. Imran Ahmad Khan
  5. Nickie Aiken
  6. Lucy Allan
  7. Lee Anderson
  8. Stuart Anderson
  9. Stuart Andrew
  10. Caroline Ansell
  11. Edward Argar
  12. Sarah Atherton
  13. Victoria Atkins
  14. Gareth Bacon
  15. Richard Bacon
  16. Kemi Badenoch
  17. Shaun Bailey
  18. Siobhan Baillie
  19. Duncan Baker
  20. Steve Baker
  21. Harriett Baldwin
  22. Steve Barclay
  23. John Baron
  24. Simon Baynes
  25. Aaron Bell
  26. Scott Benton
  27. Paul Beresford
  28. Jake Berry
  29. Saqib Bhatti
  30. Crispin Blunt
  31. Peter Bone
  32. Peter Bottomley
  33. Andrew Bowie
  34. Ben Bradley
  35. Karen Bradley
  36. Graham Brady
  37. Suella Braverman
  38. Jack Brereton
  39. Andrew Bridgen
  40. Paul Bristow
  41. Sara Britcliffe
  42. James Brokenshire
  43. Anthony Browne
  44. Felicity Buchan
  45. Robert Buckland
  46. Alex Burghart
  47. Rob Butler
  48. Alun Cairns
  49. Andy Carter
  50. James Cartlidge
  51. William Cash
  52. Miriam Cates
  53. Maria Caulfield
  54. Alex Chalk
  55. Rehman Chishti
  56. Christopher Chope
  57. Jo Churchill
  58. Greg Clark
  59. Simon Clarke
  60. Theo Clarke
  61. Brendan Clarke-Smith
  62. Chris Clarkson
  63. James Cleverly
  64. Thérèse Coffey
  65. Elliot Colburn
  66. Damian Collins
  67. Alberto Costa
  68. Robert Courts
  69. Geoffrey Cox
  70. Stephen Crabb
  71. Virginia Crosbie
  72. James Daly
  73. David T C Davies
  74. James Davies
  75. Gareth Davies
  76. Mims Davies
  77. Philip Davies
  78. David Davis
  79. Dehenna Davison
  80. Caroline Dinenage
  81. Sarah Dines
  82. Jonathan Djanogly
  83. Leo Docherty
  84. Michelle Donelan
  85. Nadine Dorries
  86. Steve Double
  87. Oliver Dowden
  88. Jackie Doyle-Price
  89. Richard Drax
  90. Flick Drummond
  91. James Duddridge
  92. David Duguid
  93. Iain Duncan Smith
  94. Mark Eastwood
  95. Ruth Edwards
  96. Michael Ellis
  97. Tobias Ellwood
  98. Natalie Elphicke
  99. George Eustice
  100. Luke Evans
  101. David Evennett
  102. Ben Everitt
  103. Michael Fabricant
  104. Laura Farris
  105. Simon Fell
  106. Katherine Fletcher
  107. Mark Fletcher
  108. Nick Fletcher
  109. Vicky Ford
  110. Kevin Foster
  111. Liam Fox
  112. Mark Francois
  113. Lucy Frazer
  114. Mike Freer
  115. Richard Fuller
  116. Marcus Fysh
  117. Mark Garnier
  118. Nusrat Ghani
  119. Nick Gibb
  120. Peter Gibson
  121. Jo Gideon
  122. Cheryl Gillan
  123. John Glen
  124. Robert Goodwill
  125. Michael Gove
  126. Richard Graham
  127. Helen Grant
  128. James Gray
  129. Chris Grayling
  130. Chris Green
  131. Damian Green
  132. Andrew Griffith
  133. Kate Griffiths
  134. James Grundy
  135. Jonathan Gullis
  136. Robert Halfon
  137. Luke Hall
  138. Stephen Hammond
  139. Matt Hancock
  140. Greg Hands
  141. Mark Harper
  142. Rebecca Harris
  143. Trudy Harrison
  144. Sally-Ann Hart
  145. Simon Hart
  146. Oliver Heald
  147. James Heappey
  148. Chris Heaton-Harris
  149. Darren Henry
  150. Antony Higginbotham
  151. Damian Hinds
  152. Richard Holden
  153. Kevin Hollinrake
  154. Philip Hollobone
  155. Adam Holloway
  156. Paul Holmes
  157. John Howell
  158. Paul Howell
  159. Nigel Huddleston
  160. Eddie Hughes
  161. Jane Hunt
  162. Jeremy Hunt
  163. Tom Hunt
  164. Alister Jack
  165. Sajid Javid
  166. Ranil Jayawardena
  167. Bernard Jenkin
  168. Mark Jenkinson
  169. Andrea Jenkyns
  170. Boris Johnson
  171. Caroline Johnson
  172. Gareth Johnson
  173. David Johnston
  174. Andrew Jones
  175. Fay Jones
  176. David Jones
  177. Marcus Jones
  178. Daniel Kawczynski
  179. Alicia Kearns
  180. Gillian Keegan
  181. Julian Knight
  182. Greg Knight
  183. Danny Kruger
  184. Kwasi Kwarteng
  185. John Lamont
  186. Andrea Leadsom
  187. Edward Leigh
  188. Ian Levy
  189. Andrew Lewer
  190. Brandon Lewis
  191. Julian Lewis
  192. Mark Logan
  193. Marco Longhi
  194. Julia Lopez
  195. Jack Lopresti
  196. Jonathan Lord
  197. Tim Loughton
  198. Craig Mackinlay
  199. Cherilyn Mackrory
  200. Rachel Maclean
  201. Alan Mak
  202. Kit Malthouse
  203. Anthony Mangnall
  204. Scott Mann
  205. Julie Marson
  206. Theresa May
  207. Jerome Mayhew
  208. Paul Maynard
  209. Stephen McPartland
  210. Esther McVey
  211. Mark Menzies
  212. Johnny Mercer
  213. Huw Merriman
  214. Stephen Metcalfe
  215. Robin Millar
  216. Maria Miller
  217. Amanda Milling
  218. Nigel Mills
  219. Andrew Mitchell
  220. Mohindra
  221. Damien Moore
  222. Robbie Moore
  223. Penny Mordaunt
  224. Anne Marie Morris
  225. James Morris
  226. Joy Morrissey
  227. Wendy Morton
  228. Kieran Mullan
  229. Holly Mumby-Croft
  230. David Mundell
  231. Andrew Murrison
  232. Robert Neill
  233. Lia Nici
  234. Jesse Norman
  235. Neil O’Brien
  236. Matthew Offord
  237. Guy Opperman
  238. Priti Patel
  239. Owen Paterson
  240. Mark Pawsey
  241. Mike Penning
  242. John Penrose
  243. Chris Philp
  244. Christopher Pincher
  245. Dan Poulter
  246. Rebecca Pow
  247. Victoria Prentis
  248. Mark Pritchard
  249. Tom Pursglove
  250. Jeremy Quin
  251. Will Quince
  252. Dominic Raab
  253. Tom Randall
  254. John Redwood
  255. Jacob Rees-Mogg
  256. Nicola Richards
  257. Angela Richardson
  258. Rob Roberts
  259. Laurence Robertson
  260. Mary Robinson
  261. Andrew Rosindell
  262. Douglas Ross
  263. Lee Rowley
  264. Dean Russell
  265. David Rutley
  266. Gary Sambrook
  267. Selaine Saxby
  268. Paul Scully
  269. Bob Seely
  270. Andrew Selous
  271. Grant Shapps
  272. Alok Sharma
  273. Alec Shelbrooke
  274. Chris Skidmore
  275. Chloe Smith
  276. Greg Smith
  277. Henry Smith
  278. Julian Smith
  279. Royston Smith
  280. Amanda Solloway
  281. Ben Spencer
  282. Mark Spencer
  283. Alexander Stafford
  284. Andrew Stephenson
  285. Jane Stevenson
  286. John Stevenson
  287. Bob Stewart
  288. Iain Stewart
  289. Mel Stride
  290. Graham Stuart
  291. James Sunderland
  292. Desmond Swayne
  293. Robert Syms
  294. Derek Thomas
  295. Maggie Throup
  296. Edward Timpson
  297. Kelly Tolhurst
  298. Justin Tomlinson
  299. Michael Tomlinson
  300. Craig Tracey
  301. Anne-Marie Trevelyan
  302. Laura Trott
  303. Elizabeth Truss
  304. Tom Tugendhat
  305. Shailesh Vara
  306. Martin Vickers
  307. Matt Vickers
  308. Christian Wakeford
  309. Robin Walker
  310. Charles Walker
  311. Ben Wallace
  312. Jamie Wallis
  313. Matt Warman
  314. Giles Watling
  315. Suzanne Webb
  316. Helen Whately
  317. Heather Wheeler
  318. Craig Whittaker
  319. John Whittingdale
  320. Bill Wiggin
  321. James Wild
  322. Craig Williams
  323. Gavin Williamson
  324. Mike Wood
  325. Jacob Young
  326. Nadhim Zahawi

Labour

  1. Harriet Harman (possibly an error)
  2. Kate Osborne (possibly an error)

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