Company Transparency (Carbon in Supply Chains) Bill

Debate between Kwasi Kwarteng and Karen Bradley

2nd reading & 2nd reading: House of Commons
Friday 16th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

After a number of years in the House, my hon. Friend shows himself very adept at crowbarring somewhat irrelevant issues, which are extremely pertinent to his constituency, into this narrow debate.

[Karen Bradley]

I join my hon. Friend in supporting offshore wind and perhaps less emphasis on onshore wind in places such as Staffordshire Moorlands.

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

Mr Deputy Speaker, you will know, with your experience, that some of these remarks are not necessarily in scope. [Laughter.] So I will continue by addressing the actual issue.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire Moorlands mentioned COP26 in Glasgow next year, where we will be taking centre stage and a leadership position not only in driving our climate ambitions but in encouraging others on a global platform, our friends and allies across the world, to take up the fight against climate change and, we hope, pursue highly ambitious nationally determined contributions. During these difficult times, our commitment to COP26 and urgent climate action has not wavered. Businesses and people are at the heart of our strategy for tackling climate change. We know we can only get there with a strong green recovery.

On corporate transparency, my right hon. Friend’s aims are absolutely central to the strategy we should pursue. There are minor differences of detail. She will know that we introduced legislation last year and that we were one of the first countries to endorse recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures. We feel as a Government that some of this action should be more embedded before we go down the route that my right hon. Friend has suggested.

[Karen Bradley]

I would just say to the Minister that sometimes we have to lead, and this is an opportunity to lead and to be the first to do something really important.

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

Dare I say, we are leading—maybe not exactly along the lines that my right hon. Friend has prescribed, but we are taking leadership? As I have said to you, Mr Deputy Speaker—

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kwasi Kwarteng and Karen Bradley

Monday 12th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng (Spelthorne) (Con)]

17. What steps the Government are taking to tackle hate speech.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

No one in this country should live in fear because of who they are. We have made progress in tackling hate crime, but we are determined to do more, including challenging those who spread extremist messages and seek to divide our society. We will therefore develop a new hate crime action plan, working in partnership with communities and across Government to ensure that we have strong measures to stop these deplorable crimes.

[Karen Bradley]

I assure my hon. Friend, who campaigns so much for the protection of religious freedoms, that we value the role of faith in society, and will protect everyone’s right to practise their faith. Freedom of speech is a fundamental value that binds our society together, and we will always protect that right. Nothing that we are doing, or planning to do, to tackle hate crime and extremism will stop the United Kingdom’s long tradition of preaching.

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

I am very grateful for the Minister’s answer. Will she assure the House that nothing in legislation will undermine not just Christianity, but people who preach other faiths?

[Karen Bradley]

I assure my hon. Friend that we are doing nothing in legislation that will prevent the right to believe, and the right to practise and preach. What we are doing is focusing on people who seek to use religious texts as an excuse to promote hatred and extremism. That is what we want to stop.