Russian Oil Import Ban

Stephen Flynn Excerpts

Wednesday 9th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right: we have to look at all the possible technologies that can give us as much resilience as possible. We have to shrug off a lot of outdated dogma in this area, and I am pleased that the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) is full square behind nuclear, because as I remember, when he was Secretary of State, he was not the most supportive of the nuclear industry. My right hon. Friend is right to identify potentially hostile powers and we are keen to diversify away from providing resources to those powers.

[Stephen Flynn (Aberdeen South) (SNP)]

I think it is safe to say that we in this Chamber all broadly support the statement that the Secretary of State has made and, while there will be arguments about the potential speed of the transition, we cannot escape the sheer scale of what has been announced today. This is a seismic shift in UK, US and indeed European energy policy. However, we also cannot be blind to the fact that there will be consequences and one of the potential consequences is retaliatory action from Putin himself. What consideration has the Secretary of State given to that matter?

On that point, if there were to be gas and oil shortages on the European continent, as a producer of oil and gas, would that not emphasise the importance of Scotland’s North sea oil and gas reserves? In terms of resources and Scotland’s resources in particular, the renewable resources that Scotland has are enormous: 25% of Europe’s entire offshore wind capacity sits off the coast of Scotland. I was a bit disappointed that the Secretary of State did not say more about renewables, so I would like to hear a little more from him about the additional support he intends to give to onshore and offshore wind, tidal, hydro pump storage, hydrogen and so on and so forth, and what the timescales for that progress will be.

Of course, the second big consequence will be for consumers. We cannot escape that fact: there will be inevitable price rises, irrespective of what the Secretary of State intimated about the price cap. Will he commit to using every single penny of additional resource that comes from the North sea oil and gas sector to insulate households from the looming cost of living crisis?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

I was very determined not to inject any kind of partisan tone into these proceedings, but it struck me as particularly bizarre to hear the hon. Gentleman defend our North sea transition deal and the considerable oil and gas assets in Scotland. I would be very interested to hear what his Green counterparts in the coalition north of the border thought of his remarks.

In relation to protecting consumers, the hon. Gentleman will know that we are fully committed to the price cap, and review it all the time to determine how effectively it can operate. Of course, we are 100% behind renewables. Regarding onshore wind, it is important to remind the House that we lifted the ban on the pot one auction last year, which has led to a huge boost for onshore wind.