Oral Answers to Questions

Alan Brown Excerpts

Tuesday 27th February 2024 Commons Chamber

[Graham Stuart]

I can. What the sector does not need, of course, as OEUK has itself set out, is the tens of thousands of job losses that would be driven by the ideological and climate-damaging obsession of the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) with ending new UK oil and gas licensing.

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

T7. The last published Government estimate for Sizewell C is £20 billion, but Hinkley Point C, the supposed prototype for Sizewell C, is now estimated to cost £48 billion. When will the Government admit that the actual cost of Sizewell C will be a colossal £50 billion noose around bill payers’ necks?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Andrew Bowie)]

The SNP, blinded by a misplaced belief in its own exceptionalism, seems almost alone in the world in not recognising the benefits of new nuclear when it comes to meeting our net zero objectives, delivering our energy security and improving our baseload. At last year’s COP, 30 countries around the world came together to commit to increasing nuclear-generated capacity by 30%. It would be brilliant if Scotland could be part of that change, but the SNP and its luddite partners in the Green party are holding Scotland back. We are determined not to do that for the rest of the UK.