Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Martin McCluskey and Lindsay Hoyle

Tuesday 14th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Martin McCluskey]

Hundreds of thousands of jobs will come from the clean power revolution. That is why it is so important that we push ahead with it and do not adopt the tactics of the Conservative party, or their friends on the Back Benches. We need to push ahead with clean power in order to unlock those hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

[Claire Coutinho (East Surrey) (Con)]

I welcome the new Ministers to the Front Bench. On the first day of recess, away from scrutiny, the Labour party published the prices for its allocation round 7 of the renewables auction. Labour used to say that renewables were nine times cheaper, but the prices that the Secretary of State has said he is willing to pay are 40% higher than the current cost of electricity—they are the highest prices in a decade—and he has extended the contract length to 20 years. Those are not just the prices that we will be paying; they are the prices that our children will be paying. Will the Minister explain how locking us into higher prices for longer will cut bills by £300?

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[Martin McCluskey]

I agree with my hon. Friend. Hundreds of thousands of jobs will come as a result of our sprint to clean power by 2030, not just in his constituency but across the entire country. What will not take us to those hundreds of thousands of jobs is the Conservative party abandoning its commitment to the Climate Change Act 2008. From hug a husky to burning the Climate Change Act—that is not the transition that we expected.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the spokesperson for the Liberal Democrat party.

[Pippa Heylings (South Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

I welcome the new Ministers to their place—I look forward to working with them—and I congratulate the Secretary of State and the Minister for Energy on holding on to their posts, which we are glad to see.

One of the best ways to bring down household bills is to help homeowners and small businesses make their properties cheaper to warm and to power. The Liberal Democrats have put forward a plan to do that by introducing a windfall tax on the big banks, which have seen billions of pounds in unexpected profits as a result of the quantitative easing programme by the Bank of England more than a decade ago. Does the Secretary of State agree with the Liberal Democrats that we should instead use those excess profits to fund green affordable loans of up to £20,000 for households and up to £50,000 for businesses and community groups, and cut people’s power bills for good?

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[Mr Speaker]

Order. Climate change will have happened before you conclude.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Martin McCluskey)]

Let me be absolutely clear: no family should ever have had to go through this. It happened because of the systematic failings of the system put in place by the previous Government, and we are cleaning up their mess. We will do that at no cost to consumers, and I am happy to meet the hon. Member to discuss any cases that he might have in his constituency.