Energy Update

Tahir Ali Excerpts

Monday 5th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Greg Hands]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question. He is truly a champion of businesses in his constituency and across the country; I know the important work he does on the Select Committee on Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for example. He is right, in that most of the energy of businesses in this country is dealt with through long-term contracts. That is an advantage in giving certainty, but when it is time for the long-term contract to be extended or renewed that can lead to a very concerning rise in the price of that contract. The Government are keenly aware of that and it is absolutely something that our new Prime Minister and the team overall will be looking at.

[Tahir Ali (Birmingham, Hall Green) (Lab)]

The Minister’s statement was nothing but full of hot air. In the midst of a cost of living crisis, the worst in living memory, many of my constituents are struggling to pay their energy bills, as are others across the country. The words of wisdom from the outgoing Prime Minister were for people to buy a kettle for £20 and save £10 a year. Does the Minister agree that the Government are out of touch with struggling families and that the suggestion of a new kettle is not only insulting, but derisory?

[Greg Hands]

Look, that is not what the Prime Minister said; he did not say that the answer to the energy crisis was to buy a new kettle. He used the new kettle to provide an analogy as to how we have dealt with nuclear power in this country, further to the points I raised earlier, with the failure to have a long-term view as to how to save money on energy costs overall. The hon. Gentleman is wholly misrepresenting what the Prime Minister said—I suspect he is wilfully misrepresenting it—in his speech on Friday.