Ban on Fracking for Shale Gas Bill

Christian Wakeford Excerpts

Wednesday 19th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Edward Miliband]

No, I will not. I want to make some progress, because many hon. Members want to speak.

On the crucial issue of what the public think, I suggest that the Business Secretary looks at the surveys conducted by his own Department. Some 78% of the public support onshore wind, 83% support tidal and offshore wind, and 87% support solar, but just 17% support fracking. Suddenly, in a sign of desperation about how grossly unpopular and unwanted the policy is, the Government say that they want to design a system of local consent.

[Christian Wakeford (Bury South) (Lab)]

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

[Edward Miliband]

I will not give way for the moment.

I do not know why the Business Secretary wants further evidence about what communities think. We already have the answer from the public: fracking is deeply unpopular and communities do not want it. Indeed, Fylde Council, which is controlled by his party and at the centre of the main UK experiment in fracking, just passed a unanimous motion saying that the ban should remain and that he should honour the manifesto commitment.

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[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, and I would like to make it absolutely clear that we need local consent before anything happens.

[Christian Wakeford]

Will the Secretary of State give way on that point?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

No.

Let me be clear to my hon. Friend the Member for North Dorset (Simon Hoare) that once the consultation on the mechanism for ascertaining a community’s view has been completed, the results will be brought to the House for approval, which I think he was also asking. If the House does not approve, fracking could not go ahead. Even if the House were to approve a mechanism, local communities would still have to consent in accordance with the mechanism. I reiterate: local communities will have a veto.

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[Alan Brown]

The political playing is by the Government, who have made the motion a vote of confidence in themselves, and are making their MPs vote in a way they do not want to. It is not the Opposition playing games—it is that lot over there.

[Christian Wakeford]

I was at Lancashire County Council when this issue first came to it seven years ago. It was rejected then and overruled by the planning inspector. Since then, we have seen that the public do not want it, councils do not want it, the Secretary of State’s Back Benchers do not want it, the leader of the Secretary of State’s council, I believe, does not want it, and Ministers do not want it—at least not in their own backyard. Who actually wants fracking? I cannot think of anybody.

[Alan Brown]

That is a good question, but it is more one for the Secretary of State. It is clear that he is in favour of it and is imposing his will on the rest of his party.

--- Later in debate ---

[Christian Wakeford (Bury South) (Lab)]

I am pleased to be called to speak in today’s debate, which I believe the Government Whips have called a confidence motion in the Prime Minister. I do not know who is more excited for her to receive her P45—is it our side or theirs?

The Prime Minister promised that

“fracking will take place only in areas with a clear public consensus behind it”,

but the Business Secretary ruled out local referendums and suggested that fracking companies themselves could

“go around door-to-door…and ask people if they will consent.”

Aside from being a truly ridiculous idea, appointing fracking operators as the arbiters of local consent would create an obvious conflict of interest and would undermine the authority of democratically elected councils. If the Business Secretary is so keen to start digging up people’s areas and causing earthquakes, I look forward to the Government’s newest site opening in North East Somerset in the coming weeks.

It might surprise some people, but I agree with many Government Members. The hon. Member for Fylde (Mark Menzies) spoke passionately last week and again today about his constituents, who were labelled Luddites by the Business Secretary. Given that I was a county councillor in Lancashire when fracking was debated some years ago, and that I am now the Member of Parliament for Bury South, I know the people of Radcliffe, Whitefield and Prestwich are certainly not Luddites, and neither are the people of Lancashire.

I am against fracking. It is unpopular, it industrialises the countryside, it contributes to climate breakdown and, importantly, it fails to address the energy crisis.

But it is not just me who thinks that; it is the public. One person said,

“it would take up to a decade”,

to extract what we need by fracking and that it was pointless—that was the Chancellor of last week. It will create,

“enormous disruption…for little economic gain”;

said the Chancellor of this week, four months ago.

The Defence Secretary opposed proposals for a fracking site in his constituency. The Tory party chairman, the right hon. Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Sir Jake Berry), signed the Defence Secretary’s letter opposing fracking. The Levelling Up Secretary said, “There isn’t strong support” for fracking, and I agree. The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport did not want it in her backyard, and I do not blame her. Now we know that the Prime Minister’s Cabinet do not have faith in fracking, or in her, I look forward to many Conservative Members joining me in the Lobby today.