Business of the House

Euan Stainbank Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

He is a very popular Member of this House. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] There we are.

The shadow Minister raises a matter that is very important to me: timely and full responses to written parliamentary questions and correspondence. I take this matter incredibly seriously and will continue, as always, to raise it with Cabinet Ministers, collectively and individually, when they fall short.

The shadow Minister also raises the issue of net zero. I am sorry, given his glittering career, that he felt the need to read out from the latest Whips’ crib sheet on net zero. The blinkered vision that the Conservatives have shown on the opportunity of net zero and the transition that we need to make is why they did so little in their time in office.

Let us look at what is actually happening. The North sea basin is diminishing; it is a finite resource. That is why the workforce in the North sea has fallen by a third over the past 10 years. There is a global race for the new technologies of the future, and we are now in that race—something the Conservatives failed to do for many years. We are making sure that the North sea has the opportunities of the future, and there are some great opportunities. That is why we are setting up Great British Energy in Aberdeen and why we have announced £22 billion for carbon capture, which will be critical to the future of the North sea basin. It is also why we are looking to reindustrialise the future with things like hydrogen, nuclear and other energies.

The shadow Minister mentions the former leader of the Labour party, but he might want to look at what some of his own party’s former leaders have said in recent years. I thought Theresa May spoke very wisely last autumn, just as the Conservatives were performing a complete volte-face over net zero, when she said:

“When the sceptics say that the green transition will cripple business, we say they could not be more wrong…When the critics say transitioning to renewables costs too much, we say it’s wrong to see it as a cost. It’s an enormous investment opportunity”.

She was right, wasn’t she? He knows she was.

If the hon. Gentleman wants to talk about the local elections, I am sure that we can have an exchange of statistics, but the one that I will leave him with is that council tax bills for people living in Labour councils are, on average, £300 lower than elsewhere. That is the one thing that people should be thinking about today of all days.

I do not want to be too harsh on the hon. Gentleman, because I am fond of him. Having said that, we are now six months on from the Leader of the Opposition taking up her position. Today will be her first major electoral test, and I wonder how the Conservatives think things are really going, because they have been veering from one side of the road to the other. They have been taking just about every position possible. Even on Monday, they voted against their own Football Governance Bill. They actually wrote it, and their poor, mortified shadow Secretary of State, who had previously called it an excellent Bill, had to put up the best act that I have seen in a long time of speaking against it from the Dispatch Box.

The leadership of the Leader of the Opposition is being backseat driven by the shadow Justice Secretary, who is on constant manoeuvres. He is no doubt spending the day on the phones—not to the electors, but to his future backers. He has promised this electoral pact with Reform, but the truth is that the two parties are indistinguishable at the moment. I cannot tell the difference between the once great Conservative party and the Reform party, because we all know that voting Tory today means voting Reform and that voting Reform today means voting Tory.

[Euan Stainbank (Falkirk) (Lab)]

Bagpipe music is undisputedly the finest instrumental music around. Earlier this month, the 37-strong Falkirk schools pipe band, accompanied by 30 dancers from the Denny high school’s dance academy, participated in the Tartan Day parade in New York, commendably representing Scotland and Falkirk district. Starting less than three years ago, they have quickly developed into the pride of the town and the district. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating these immense young people and the community, parents and educators who made their immense performance in New York earlier this month possible?

[Lucy Powell]

I am delighted to hear about the bagpipe musicians from my hon. Friend’s constituency going to New York. That sounds like a really fantastic visit. I thank him for raising it here and join him in congratulating them on their endeavours.