Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Katherine Fletcher and Virginia Crosbie

Wednesday 26th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Virginia Crosbie (Ynys Môn) (Con)]

T3. I am delighted that two entrepreneurs, Janet Percival from Jaspels cider and Stacey Chadfield from Emberwood Creative, will be coming to Westminster as part of the Savvitas MP HERoes initiative. Does my hon. Friend agree that our entrepreneurs are the backbone of our economy, particular in places such as Ynys Môn?

[The Minister for Women (Katherine Fletcher)]

With family on the island running businesses, including my own—businesses based in Llangefni and Aberffraw, a wonderful part of the island—I absolutely support the work that the Savvitas MP HERoes have done to celebrate female-led enterprises across all areas of the UK. I particularly want to take this opportunity to thank Helene Martin Gee for her excellent work in this area. I am also delighted to announce that to date, 40% of start-up loans issued by this Government have gone to female entrepreneurs.

Nuclear Energy Policy: Climate Change

Debate between Katherine Fletcher and Virginia Crosbie

Wednesday 5th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[Virginia Crosbie]

This reactor technology is proven and has already been delivered four times. I agree with the hon. Gentleman that this technology must be proven to be safe.

Secondly, nuclear power fits in with decarbonisation both here and in the world at large. Nuclear energy has been powering UK homes since 1956, doing the heavy lifting of decarbonisation long before global warming was near the political agenda. According to the “Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics 2019” published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, nuclear power provides over 45% of our domestically generated clean power. Over the next decade, however, all but one of our current fleet is due to come offline. If that capacity is not replaced with nuclear, our emissions will go up.

Countries like Germany have tried to decarbonise by shutting down their nuclear power stations and opening open-cast lignite coal mines—the dirtiest form of coal possible—to keep the lights on when their wind and solar fleet is not generating enough electricity. Their long-term solution is to pipe in gas from Russia, but that is still a polluting fossil fuel. The Nord Stream 2 project risks Germany becoming too dependent on gas from Russia, at a time when the world’s political instabilities risk supply cut-off. This would not be an appropriate course of action for us to take.

If we were to exclude nuclear in the UK, we would need to install 478 GW of capacity, compared with between just 70 GW and 80 GW in a balanced mix. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded in 2018 that not only is it more difficult to reach net zero without nuclear, but it is significantly more expensive.

Lastly, but most importantly, for my constituents of Ynys Môn the economic benefits are clear. As a Government, we promised our voters in areas such as mine that they would not be forgotten any longer.

[Katherine Fletcher (South Ribble) (Con)]

I wish to emphasise the point about economic benefits. An arc goes from Anglesey all the way up to Sellafield, with South Ribble and Mr Speaker’s own patch of Chorley very much at the heart of it. With the number of high-skilled, technical, brilliant engineers within that arc, it is not unusual for someone to live in Warrington and work in Anglesey one day, at Sellafield the next and at BAE Systems in Barrow the next. Does my hon. Friend agree that this proposal is economically vital for the north of Wales and the north-west of England?

[Virginia Crosbie]

I thank my hon. Friend for making that clear point about the nuclear arc and how this will benefit so many more people than just the people on Ynys Môn; it will benefit people throughout Wales. This nuclear arc is going to be very important.