Farming reacts to porn-watching MP Neil Parish’s resignation
© UK Parliament Leading figures in agriculture have said the industry will miss the expertise and fierce support of farming advocate Neil Parish, the Conservative MP who has resigned after he was caught watching porn in parliament.
Mr Parish, who was chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee, resigned his seat for Tiverton and Honiton in Devon last weekend.
See also: Efra chair Neil Parish investigated over Commons porn claims
In an interview with BBC South West, Mr Parish admitted he had twice watched porn in parliament, claiming the first was accidental while searching for tractors, but the second time was deliberate.
It was a “moment of madness”, he said, and he had made a “huge, terrible mistake”.
Chairmanship
Mr Parish chaired the Efra committee since 2015. A former farmer who still lives on the family farm, he was among a dwindling number of MPs with first-hand experience of agriculture and the countryside.
During his tenure, the Efra committee has taken the government to task on a range of issues – including late support payments to farmers, cheap food imports, animal welfare standards, labour availability, and fertiliser prices.
Before becoming a Conservative MP in 2010, Mr Parish was an MEP in Brussels and a member of the committee on agriculture and rural development, which he chaired from 2007 to 2009.
‘Sad loss’
Former Defra minister Sir Jim Paice said Mr Parish always spoke up for the farming industry.
“I feel very sorry that Neil’s career has ended this way. It clearly is a loss to British farming and the countryside in terms of advocacy in parliament,” Sir Jim told Farmers Weekly.
“I worked closely with him when he was in Europe and obviously when he came into the Commons. He has always worked very hard and diligently for farming.
“I didn’t always agree with him, but he always put forward his views and spoke up for the industry.”
Sir Peter Kendall, former NFU president and past AHDB chairman, said he believed Mr Parish’s farming expertise would be “seriously missed”.
“Neil wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but he was a really enthusiastic champion of the farming industry,” he said.
“He did some really impactful reviews of policy and regulation. He had got experience from chairing the European committee and brought it to Efra as well. I think for some he had become a bit of a thorn in the side to the government.”
With issues such as post-Brexit agriculture policy, the war in Ukraine, and world food security to the fore, Mr Parish’s resignation was a massive loss to agriculture, Sir Peter added.
What next?
The cross-party Efra committee will agree an interim chair from among its membership at its next meeting – scheduled for Tuesday, 10 May.
Arrangements for the election of a new permanent Efra chair will be made by the House of Commons speaker. Only Conservative members will be able to stand for election as the new chair. The timeframe is not yet known.
There will also be a by-election in the Tiverton and Honiton constituency in due course, which will be especially appealing to both the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties, who are looking to capitalise on an apparent swing away from the Conservatives among rural voters.