Agriculture Bill — New Clause 2 — International trade Agreements: Agricultural and Food Products — Compliance with UK and Word Trade Organisation Standards — 13 May 2020 at 17:15

The majority of MPs voted against requiring new international treaties on the import of agricultural and food products to ensure products imported into the United Kingdom under those arrangements comply with World Trade Organisation safety rules and the United Kingdom's own standards.

MPs were considering the Agriculture Bill[1].

The proposed new clause rejected in this vote was titled: International trade agreements: agricultural and food products and began:

  • (1) A Minister of the Crown may not lay a copy of an international trade agreement before Parliament under section 20(1) of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 that contains provisions relating to the importation of agricultural and food products into the UK unless they have first made a statement confirming that—
  • (a) the agreement contains an affirmation of the United Kingdom’s rights and obligations under the World Trade Organisation Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement, and
  • (b) any agricultural or food product imported into the UK under the agreement will have been produced or processed according to standards which are equivalent to, or which exceed, the relevant domestic standards and regulations in relation to—
  • (i) animal health and welfare,
  • (ii) plant health, and
  • (iii) environmental protection.
  • (2) A statement under subsection (1) shall be laid before each House of Parliament.
  • (3) Before the first statement under subsection (1) may be made, the Secretary of State must by regulations specify—
  • (a) the process by which the Secretary of State will determine—
  • (i) that the standards to which any agricultural or food product imported into the UK under a trade agreement is produced or processed are equivalent to, or exceed, the relevant domestic standards and regulations in relation to animal health and welfare, plant health and environmental protection, and
  • (ii) that the enforcement of standards in relation to any product under sub-paragraph (3)(a)(i) is at least as effective as the enforcement of the equivalent domestic standards and regulations in the UK;
  • (b) the ‘relevant domestic standards and regulations’ for the purposes of subsections (1)(b) and (3)(a)(i).
  • (4) The Secretary of State may make regulations amending any regulations made under subsection (3).
  • (5) Regulations under subsection (3) or (4) shall be made under the affirmative procedure.
  • ...

The rejected new clause went on to define some of the terms used within it.

Debate in Parliament |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Alliance0 10100.0%
Con326 22095.3%
DUP0 80100.0%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent0 10100.0%
Lab2 183091.6%
LDem0 110100.0%
PC0 40100.0%
SDLP0 20100.0%
SNP0 44093.6%
Total:328 277094.2%

Rebel Voters - sorted by name

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Bob BlackmanHarrow EastCon (front bench)aye
Claire CoutinhoEast SurreyConaye
Tracey CrouchChatham and AylesfordConaye
Roger GaleNorth ThanetCon (front bench)aye
Harriet HarmanCamberwell and PeckhamLab (minister)no
John HayesSouth Holland and The DeepingsConaye
Gordon HendersonSittingbourne and SheppeyConaye
Simon HoareNorth DorsetCon (front bench)aye
Neil HudsonPenrith and The BorderCon (front bench)aye
Simon JuppEast DevonCon (front bench)aye
Pauline LathamMid DerbyshireCon (front bench)aye
Ian Liddell-GraingerBridgwater and West SomersetCon (front bench)aye
Chris LoderWest DorsetCon (front bench)aye
Jason McCartneyColne ValleyConaye
David MorrisMorecambe and LunesdaleConaye
Caroline NokesRomsey and Southampton NorthCon (front bench)aye
Kate OsborneJarrowLab (minister)no
Neil ParishTiverton and HonitonCon (front bench)aye
David SimmondsRuislip, Northwood and PinnerCon (front bench)aye
Gary StreeterSouth West DevonCon (front bench)aye
Julian SturdyYork OuterCon (front bench)aye
Rishi SunakRichmond (Yorks)Con (front bench)aye
Theresa VilliersChipping BarnetCon (front bench)aye
David WarburtonSomerton and FromeConaye

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