Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Theresa Villiers and Kwasi Kwarteng

Tuesday 11th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)]

T7. It is a massive relief that the nightmare scenario of energy bills of £4,000, £5,000 or even £6,000 has been prevented by the energy price cap. Will the Government explain how they are reducing the cost to taxpayers of that scheme and stabilising the energy market for the future?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

My right hon. Friend was 100% right to notice that the energy intervention was exactly the right thing. We are going to have a commitment to fiscal responsibility, which will stabilise the economic situation and picture, and I am sure that her constituents will fully understand what the growth plan is all about: putting more money into their pockets so that we can have a growing and dynamic economy.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Theresa Villiers and Kwasi Kwarteng

Tuesday 29th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

As the hon. Lady is aware, we have made a number of interventions that have gone some way to lightening the burden. There is the £9 billion that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor announced a few weeks ago, and £150 off council tax for those in bands A to D. I have reassured the House that we are looking at a range of measures to see how best we can meet the challenge of the next few months. Nobody knows where the price cap will be in October.

[Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)]

T7. The price cap, the cut in fuel duty and the warm home discount are providing vital help with bills, but will the Government commit to further action, domestically and internationally, to try to get energy prices down, so that we can help pensioners and other vulnerable groups?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to identify this as an issue. That is why we are working, not only in Government but across G7 partners, to ensure diverse sources of energy supply, which can keep prices down.

UK Steel Production: Greensill Capital

Debate between Theresa Villiers and Kwasi Kwarteng

Thursday 25th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

The hon. Lady will know, as I have said at the Dispatch Box today, that we have a taskforce in BEIS chaired by my noble Friend Lord Grimstone. This is absolutely something that we are looking into, given the huge need we have and the huge demand for steel products in our infrastructure plans.

[Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con) [V]]

For all the many reasons set out by Members today, retention of a domestic steel industry is vital for our economy and our security. Will the Secretary of State set out what he is doing to ensure that we have the right regulatory climate for steel to thrive? Will he commit that, if other countries dump steel on world markets that has been inappropriately subsidised, he will take action via our trade policy to introduce anti-dumping measures to protect and support our steel industry?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

My right hon. Friend will know that the steel industry in particular is subject to fairly stringent World Trade Organisation rules. She will also know, given the publication of our industrial decarbonisation strategy, that we are rigorously focused on trying to source clean, green steel in order to drive a green industrial revolution and to create the infrastructure projects without which we cannot have any real economic growth.

EU Withdrawal Joint Committee: Oversight

Debate between Theresa Villiers and Kwasi Kwarteng

Wednesday 20th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

I assure the hon. Gentleman that I have not been consumed by a tiger and I am still smiling. If we get the deal through the House—I look forward to his support in that—we will leave the EU and be able to move forward, I hope, in a progressive and measured way. However, I thank him for his poetic interjection.

[Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)]

I take the Minister’s points about this structure being used in several contexts in international treaties. Many of my constituents would say that it was still unacceptable, and that they would like more transparency. However, even assuming that the structure is acceptable in the context of some international treaties, what is my hon. Friend’s response to the comment that the treaty would be uniquely powerful, were it to be adopted, because it would involve this country and this House being subject to laws made for us by other people, over which we had no say?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

I do not accept the premise of my right hon. Friend’s question. Clearly, our relationship with the EU over decades was complicated and involved and the withdrawal agreement is a capable way of getting out. Few of its provisions last beyond the end of the implementation period. It is a clear and orderly way of leaving the EU, and I urge hon. Members, including my right hon. Friends behind me, to support it.