Food and Drink (Trade Deficit)

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Agriculture, Fisheries and Food – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 19 December 1991.

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Photo of John Gummer John Gummer Secretary of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 12:00, 19 December 1991

Very much the same situation has obtained under Ministers of both Governments for the past 20 years—[Interruption.] That happens to be a fact, and it was this Government who set out to do something about it. The hon. Gentleman may like to ask some of his right hon. and hon. Friends what they did about it. They did not even approach the matter. We are dealing with it as well as we can in the circumstances and are beginning to have some real effect. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will ask his constituents to remember that if they want to do something about that matter there is one answer—to buy the best food that there is, and that is British produced.