Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Tuesday 18th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

My hon. Friend is right about the possibilities for CCUS. The £20 billion fund was competitive, and others, including HyNet on the east coast, won. When it comes to the Humber cluster, both the track 1 expansion and track 2 will happen later this year.

[John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)]

T7. British industry has supplied small modular nuclear reactors to the Royal Navy for more than 60 years, giving us a head start on the exciting commercial application of this zero carbon energy technology. Why is the Minister undermining and delaying its progress by going through an unnecessary so-called international competition, rather than backing British engineering excellence and British workers?

[Grant Shapps]

That is a brilliant question. What happened during all those years when the Labour party was against civil nuclear power? This Government are moving ahead, and we have set up Great British Nuclear and funded Rolls-Royce with £210 million and counting. I have already said from this Dispatch Box that we are starting a competition now to select a winner in the autumn. Where were Labour Members when we were doing all this?