Energy Bill [ Lords ] (Eighteenth sitting)

Katherine Fletcher Excerpts

Committee stage
Thursday 29th June 2023 Public Bill Committees

I cannot think of any good reason why the new clause should not be immediately agreed to. It is something that the Government wanted to do when the Bill was first introduced, and it is something that they wanted to do when the Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Act was passed. I am pretty sure that in his heart the Minister agreed with it then, agrees with it now and wants it back in the Bill, but possibly he is stymied by the ghost of the Secretary of State who performed that particular act of vandalism on the Bill. I assure him, as we have seen from recent events, that it is very much the ghost of the Secretary of State, not someone who would actually come and pull him into a cupboard and do him over if this clause were restored. [Interruption.] Metaphorically, of course.

[Katherine Fletcher (South Ribble) (Con)]

I appreciate that the hon. Gentleman is trying to bring some colour to his remarks, but does he agree that alluding to acts of physical violence in something so important is not a brilliant plan?

[Dr Whitehead]

I would agree if that were not my metaphorical way. Of course I do not believe that the former Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is going to take the Minister into a cupboard and do him over; it is a metaphor that I hoped might convey some of the possible lingering influence of the right hon. Member for North East Somerset on our present considerations. I am sure that the Minister will want to put that lingering influence out of his mind when considering what to do today.

After all the work that has been done on getting this clause back into the Bill, I confidently expect the Minister to greet it with acclamation. He does not have to do any work on it now, because it is ready to go. He can proceed with a Bill he can be proud of through its remaining stages in this House.