Electricity Supplies from Europe

Debate between Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist and Lord Vaizey of Didcot

Tuesday 18th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith)]

I call the noble Baroness, Lady Goudie. No? In that case, I call the noble Lord, Lord Vaizey of Didcot.

[Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Con)]

I am very grateful for the opportunity to opine on this important issue. Can the Minister confirm that the French are in fact building one of our nuclear reactors? Has the recent dispute led the Government to review that situation?

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)]

The French are indeed building at Hinkley Point, and we are still in discussions with them on the project to build Sizewell C. I am not aware of any interruptions in those negotiations.

National Security and Investment Bill

Debate between Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist and Lord Vaizey of Didcot

Committee stage
Tuesday 9th March 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)]

I am grateful for those comments. They will be noted.

[Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I would never put my noble friend the Minister in the same paragraph as “Yes Minister”. She is a far classier act than that and a wonderful and effective force in your Lordships’ House. But, in a hesitant fashion, I will say that, when listening to the Government’s response, my concerns continued to grow. It seems that their position, which is perhaps understandable, is that they have crafted a Bill that covers every conceivable transaction. Then they will see how it works in practice, over the next couple of years, and gradually narrow it down. That was the tone of the response that I got from my noble friend Lord Callanan. When my noble friend Lady Bloomfield was responding, I began to wonder whether the sale of an iPhone to a Chinese government official in a phone shop in Westfield in Shepherd’s Bush would count as a transaction.