Former prime minister Rishi Sunak returns to Commons as backbencher

Former prime minister Rishi Sunak has returned to the Commons as a backbencher.

The Conservative MP for the rural constituency of Richmond and Northallerton in North Yorkshire questioned Environment Secretary Steve Reed on food security.

He officially resigned as Tory leader on July 5 after the party suffered its worst electoral defeat in its history.

He remained in post as leader of the Opposition while the Conservatives held an extended leadership contest, resulting in Kemi Badenoch’s election earlier this month.

Over the course of the general election campaign in which his party was consistently behind in the polls, the former prime minister said he would “of course” stay on as an MP if the Conservatives lost.

Unveiling her Budget in October, Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves referred to rumours that Mr Sunak would move to the US, saying his “ears have pricked up” as she announced a 50% rise in air passenger duty (APD) for private jet users.

She said: “That is equivalent to £450 per passenger for a private jet to, say, California.”

In his last appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Sunak made light of the California talk, telling MPs: “I’m happy to confirm reports that I will now be spending more time in the greatest place on Earth, where the scenery is indeed worthy of a movie set, and everyone is a character – that’s right, if anyone needs me, I will be in Yorkshire.”

During environment, food and rural affairs questions in the Commons on Thursday, he said: “In our increasingly volatile world, I’m sure the Secretary of State will agree that food security is of growing importance to our national resilience.

“So I hope he can commit the new Government to continue publishing the annual food security index, with the next update coming at next year’s Farm to Fork Summit.”

Mr Reed replied: “It’s a pleasure, of course, to take a question from the distinguished former prime minister.

“We are reviewing the data that we can publish. We want to be as open and transparent as possible. I think that’s good for the sector, it’s good for scrutiny, but we will announce in due course precisely how that operates.”

In a continuation of his former role as deputy prime minister to Mr Sunak, Sir Oliver Dowden also made his return to the back benches on Thursday.

During business questions, the Conservative MP for Hertsmere said the green belt was designed to “stop soulless urban sprawl overtaking villages and towns” like ones in his constituency, but “targets imposed on those areas by the Labour Government render its protections meaningless”.

He said: “So will the leader of the House therefore find time for us to discuss protection of the green belt before Labour’s policies render to the countryside exactly what socialist policies did to towns up and down this country in the 60s and the 70s?”

Leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell replied: “I will take no lectures from (Sir Oliver) on meeting and dealing with the housing crisis that we inherited from the government that he was deputy prime minister of.

“This Government is unashamedly pro-house-building to deal with the housing crisis but this is not a developer free for all.

“We will be protecting green belt and we will be prioritising brownfield and grey belt first, and all our ambitious plans, which we are working at pace to do, will be locally led as well.”