Making Britain a Clean Energy Superpower

James MacCleary Excerpts

Friday 26th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[James MacCleary (Lewes) (LD)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I thank the hon. Member for West Dunbartonshire (Douglas McAllister) for his excellent speech. He is clearly very knowledgeable about his area and I think he will be a hugely positive addition to this House.

It is a huge privilege for me to represent the Lewes constituency. It is my home and it is where I am raising, with my partner, our young family. I want to start there, with my family—my partner, Donna, and our two young children, Amelia and Elliott. I want to thank them for their support. In fact, Elliott asked me to bring you guys a message today: he says that if anyone is in the market for trading any Pokémon cards, he is open to a discussion. It has been a really long road, but they have been there every single step of the way and I genuinely could not have done this without their help.

I also want to thank the voters in my community for putting their trust in me. That includes those who lent me their support tactically in this election. I will always campaign for electoral reform so that everybody’s vote really counts.

I pay tribute to my predecessor, Maria Caulfield, who was the MP for Lewes for nine years. Lewes is a very old constituency that can be traced back hundreds of years, and Maria was the first woman to represent the seat. She served in the last Government as a Health Minister and Women’s Minister. Among other achievements, she was instrumental in introducing baby loss certificates for parents who have suffered the death of a baby—an important and welcome initiative. We certainly had our differences, but they were political rather than personal, and I sincerely wish Maria and her husband, Steve, all the very best for the future.

Let me tell the House a little bit about my constituency. I will start in our historic county town. Every year, on 5 November, the town of Lewes hosts one of the largest and most anarchic bonfire celebrations. It is an annual manifestation of the town’s fiercely independent spirit. The streets are packed with tens of thousands of visitors to see the magnificent effigies that are paraded through the town to the various fire sites. Often, they include prominent political figures, so please remember—I say this in particular to the new Government Front Benchers —that if you are sent an image or a video of an effigy of yourself being blown up in Lewes in November, it really is a great honour. Members will just have to trust me on that.

Down the road on the coast are Newhaven and Seaford, the latter being the largest town in my constituency. It is in desperate need of a new health centre, and I will continue to press for the redevelopment of the existing town centre site. It is also a former Cinque port, with a magnificent sweeping beach that retains the most complete example of a Martello tower on the south coast. Built in the early 19th century to defend the country against a Napoleonic invasion that never came, it is now home to the town’s fantastic museum, which I really recommend that Members visit if they are ever there. The town has been represented in its time as a separate borough by not one but two former Prime Ministers, George Canning and William Pitt the Younger.

Seaford ceased to be a port when the River Ouse changed course after a violent storm broke through at Newhaven. Ever since then, Newhaven has been an important port town with a proud industrial heritage and varied history. It also happens to be where I live. Every day, visitors come through Newhaven to use the excellent ferry link to Dieppe and to visit our historic Palmerston fort—or, at least, they will when it completes its £5 million renovation. It is a town experiencing a renaissance after years of neglect, and it will see a new health hub in the town centre and investment in our outdoor spaces and our fishing industry. It is also a town with some pretty unique claims to fame. Newhaven is the last known whereabouts of Lord Lucan, has a plaque dedicated to Ho Chi Minh, who is said to have worked on the ferry, and has a bench dedicated to the American rapper Eazy-E, for reasons unknown.

At the eastern end of the constituency are Polegate, Willingdon and Stone Cross. Known for their historic windmills, these communities have been at the sharp end of house building, without the necessary infrastructure to support it. I will work with the NHS and local councils to secure the funding needed for the promised new health hub in Willingdon and improvement to health facilities in Polegate. I will also be keeping a very close eye on the Government’s proposals for planning.

Running through the middle of the constituency is the South Downs national park. The town of Lewes is in fact the largest town in a national park anywhere in the country. We are also home to the Seven Sisters country park, with its famous cliffs. We have award-winning vineyards and breweries, and a thriving arts and cultural scene that boasts the world-famous Glyndebourne opera house and the Charleston festival. We are lucky to have some picture-perfect villages with their own uniqueness, among them Ditchling, with its art and craft museum showcasing the work that made the village a creative hub in the 20th century, and Plumpton with its racecourse. There is also the giant white outline of the Long Man, who stands guard over Wilmington.

Some of our villages also have unique features. Alfriston is home to the Clergy House—the first property acquired by the National Trust, for £10 in 1896—while Jevington claims to be the birthplace of banoffee pie. We have two beautiful rivers, the Cuckmere and the Ouse, which flow into Seaford bay. Sadly, they have been used by Southern Water as a dumping ground for sewage, and have had sewage discharges in recent weeks. I look forward to seeing the proposals brought forward by this Government to take on sewage dumping.

Moving on to today’s debate, it is encouraging to hear support from many Members for ramping up renewable energy. Our constituents, the business community and the UK’s international allies are carefully watching this new Government and Parliament to see if we are serious about once again making the UK a leader in the transition to a clean, safe and inclusive low-carbon economy. I hope we will work together in a constructive spirit to show that we are indeed serious and that fine words will be matched by bold action.

Locally, we have seen the benefits of community energy and heat networks. We must ensure that communities that are taking on renewable energy facilities, such as for solar power, can directly benefit. That should include community ownership of smaller-scale schemes. It is not just about energy generation; it is about transmission. Other hon. Members have mentioned delays in renewable energy schemes getting off the ground because of connectivity issues to the grid.

I congratulate the new Minister on his appointment, and I would be delighted to welcome him to my constituency at some stage to discuss the important role that community energy and microgeneration can play in our future energy mix, and introduce him to some of the people working hard on the ground in my community to make it happen.

On a larger scale, we have the major offshore wind array, which is serviced from Newhaven port. The Rampion wind array generates enough energy to power 350,000 homes and was signed off by the then Secretary of State for Energy, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey). Many hon. Members are parents like me. We all need to be able to look our children in the eye and say that we did everything we could to secure their future and that of all future generations.

Doing the best for our children—for all children—is one of my personal political priorities, particularly through the early years. We need to start treating childcare less as a cost to the taxpayer and more as an investment in the future of our country. In a previous job, I worked in deprived communities across the country to support improving literacy for young children. The transformative effect of supportive learning in the first five years of a child’s life is immense. I am pleased to hear the Government talking more about free and subsidised childcare, but that must be matched with a real commitment to funding nurseries and other early years settings properly. Thousands of nurseries have closed down in recent years, and we have to think about supporting early years providers as well as parents.

I am proud to represent my constituency, humbled to sit in this House and determined to make the most of every day that I have to be the best possible MP for the people of Lewes. The last Liberal Democrat to hold the title was the formidable Norman Baker, and I too intend to work hard for every corner of the constituency. In the five years since the last election the country has been through a lot. The highest public offices have, at times, been degraded, and trust in politics remains low. We have an opportunity and a responsibility to get our politics and our country on to a better, fairer, greener and more prosperous path. I look forward to working constructively with the Government and other Opposition parties to help deliver just that.