Rupa Huq
Main Page: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)Department Debates - View all Rupa Huq's debates with the Cabinet Office
(3 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Prime Minister
The hon. Lady is totally wrong, because we need to integrate business into the fight against climate change. That is the way to do it, as we have done with wind power, and we also need nuclear power.
Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)
The Government say they are now following the science—they said it during covid and they are saying it on climate—but over the weekend they managed to alienate the entire scientific community of this nation with leaks to the press saying that the UK is about to be wrenched out of three different multibillion-pound international research and infrastructure projects that tackle exactly those two things, because they are backed by the EU scientific budget. Will the Prime Minister confirm that we need a joined-up approach on these things and that it is not about settling old scores? Can he tell us that those reports are truly media tittle-tattle?
The Prime Minister
I do not know quite what relevance that has to COP, but the UK is investing massively. We have doubled our commitment to R&D, funding for science is going up to £22 billion and we have set up a new advanced research and invention agency, which is based on the model of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and is unlike anything that any previous Government have done.