(1 week ago)
Commons ChamberThe hon. Lady should tell her constituents that we played a big role in helping to devise the TFFF, that we have absolutely not ruled out contributing to it in the future and that we are determined that the fund succeeds. As I have said, we will obviously keep the question of a UK contribution under review.
I thank the Secretary of State for his clear leadership, which is in stark contrast to the shadow Secretary of State. I was dismayed to hear her comments, which offered a complete dereliction of duty to future generations and followed others’ failures of leadership rather than showing leadership. I warmly welcome the role that the UK played under the Secretary of State’s leadership in championing the road map for fossil fuel phase out, but there is an elephant in the room. Will the Government continue that leadership by ruling out extraction at Rosebank?
(1 year, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberWhen I came into office and examined the issues around pot 2, which covers tidal, I was very keen to make sure that we increased the tidal minimum, which we did by 50%. These are important discussions to continue. There is a dilemma here, as the right hon. Gentleman will know, which is that tidal remains relatively expensive, but the point of the tidal developers is that many technologies remained expensive until they were deployed at scale. These are hard questions, because they are about value for money and how much we invest in tidal, but my Department needs to have those important discussions.
I congratulate the Secretary of State and his Department on their excellent work. Given all that we have heard from the shadow Minister today, does my right hon. Friend agree that this Government’s record success shows that the main block to the sprint to renewables was the Conservative party?
My hon. Friend makes an important point about the legacy of the last Government. To widen her point, I would say to Members across the House—we need to be candid that this is hard for us as constituency MPs—that there is a need to connect debates in this House about fuel poverty and energy bills and the decisions that are being made in our areas. Candidly, unless we build the grid, solar and onshore wind, we will never get off the rollercoaster of international gas markets. All of us face a choice. We need a public debate about this, because if we are to tackle fuel poverty and do the things that I described, building is required, and we need to make that happen.