Daniel Zeichner MP has been appointed Farming Minister at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), as the UK's new Prime Minister Keir Starmer continues to finalise his junior ministerial team following Labour's landslide election victory last week.

Zeichner, who has been as the MP for Cambridge since 2015 and was once again re-elected on Thursday, will the new Defra team headed up by Environment Secretary Steve Reed, it was announced today.

He steps into the role after four years as Labour's Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Prior to that, he was also Shadow Minister for Transport under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Party.

Zeichner has been described by the Labour party as a "life-long environmentalist", with an "enduring interest in agriculture and food issues". He said he is a lifelong pro-European, voting at every opportunity to keep Britain in the EU and Single Market, and campaigning for 'Remain' during the Brexit referendum in 2016.

In 2021 he led Labour's scrutiny of the government's Agricultural Bill and was also a member of the Parliamentary committee scrutinising the Environment Bill. 

Zeichne has spoken in many debates on food security and wider environmental issues, including challenging the Conservative government's targets on air and water quality.

In September last year, Zeichner travelled to the Peak District where he head concerns raised by farmers on Labour's pledge to introduce a 'right to roam' in England, which would give the public access rights to private rural land. He insisted Labour would seek to work with the farming community on developing the policy in government.