Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kwasi Kwarteng and Virendra Sharma

Tuesday 29th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)]

2. What steps he is taking to support households affected by the increase in energy prices in April 2022.

[The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Kwasi Kwarteng)]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, the energy price cap continues to protect consumers in a world where gas prices have more than quintupled in a year, and I strongly expect that it will continue to do so.

[Mr Sharma]

I thank the Secretary of State for that answer. Given the pressure that families are facing in this cost of living crisis, does he agree that the best way to help families to pay their bills is through a windfall tax on oil and gas producers in the North sea to give the poorest up to £600 off their bills?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

As the hon. Gentleman will know, we believe that a windfall tax in this situation would be a tax on jobs, destroy investment and add to the uncertainty in oil markets. It would send completely the wrong message to investors, as well as to people who are invested in markets. Every one of us, anyone with a pension, would be adversely affected by such a tax.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kwasi Kwarteng and Virendra Sharma

Tuesday 22nd February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

That is why we have £155 million that can be applied discretionally, particularly to protect these vulnerable consumers. Labour’s whole approach to energy security has been woeful. Labour destroyed the nuclear industry we had, without any progress, and it has created massive uncertainty in energy supply through its proposed windfall tax, which is not the way to produce energy supply that secures low-cost energy for our people.

[Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)]

13. What steps his Department is taking to support research into Parkinson’s disease.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kwasi Kwarteng and Virendra Sharma

Thursday 6th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)]

7. What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for International Trade on the potential effect of the proposed withdrawal agreement on the UK’s ability to trade with the US.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Kwasi Kwarteng)]

DExEU Ministers and officials, as the House probably knows, engage regularly with the Department for International Trade on EU exit and trade matters. Our officials also jointly attend the US-UK trade and investment working group, which has met five times already. As the withdrawal agreement states, we will be free to negotiate, sign and ratify free trade agreements during the implementation period, and we will be able to bring them into force after that implementation period is complete.

[Mr Sharma]

Is President Trump wrong when he says that the withdrawal agreement is a good deal for the EU but a bad deal for Britain?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

President Trump can justify his remarks for himself, but the US ambassador, Mr Woody Johnson, recently said:

“Britain is the perfect trading partner for the United States”.

That relationship is already the strongest we have—the United States is our single biggest trading partner, accounting for 20% of our trade—and there is no reason to suggest that that would be in any way jeopardised by the deal.