debates/debates2025-04-29b conversation_14
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

UK Parliament Hansard data: debates/debates2025-04-29b conversation_14

Markus Campbell-Savours:If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities. \p Ed Miliband: Last week, 60 Governments and more than 50 global businesses gathered in London for the first global summit on the future of energy security with the International Energy Agency. I heard from country after country the hard-headed case for clean energy’s role in delivering energy security to free us from  the global fossil fuel markets controlled by petrostates and dictators. I also heard from many clean energy businesses that Britain was the place where they wanted to invest because of the clarity and speed of this Government’s mission. \p Markus Campbell-Savours: Homes in rural areas experience some of the highest rates of fuel poverty in the UK. Rural properties are less energy efficient than the national average and many are simply harder to insulate. Will the Minister confirm that my constituents in Penrith and Solway will see the additional challenge of rurality reflected in the Government’s ambitious warm homes plan? \p Ed Miliband: One hundred per cent—my hon. Friend is absolutely right about that. The Minister for Energy Consumers and I often discuss how we have to ensure that our warm homes plan takes account of the particular needs and challenges facing rural areas. \p Lindsay Hoyle: I call the shadow Minister. \p Andrew Bowie: Voters

“feel they’re being asked to make financial sacrifices…when they know that their impact on global emissions is minimal… Present policy solutions are inadequate and…therefore unworkable… The current approach isn’t working… Any strategy based on either ‘phasing out’ fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail.”

Does the Secretary of State agree with his former boss Tony Blair? \p Ed Miliband: The shadow Minister talks about the Tony Blair Institute report. I agree with a lot of what it says. It says that we should move ahead on carbon capture and storage, which the Government are doing. It says that we should move ahead on the role of artificial intelligence, which the Government are doing. It says that we should move ahead on nuclear, which the Government are doing. The shadow Minister said only three weeks ago, after his party dropped its net zero policy—this will surprise people, Mr Speaker— \p Lindsay Hoyle: Order. No, Secretary of State. This is topical questions; I do not need a full statement. \p Andrew Bowie: To be honest, I was looking forward to hearing what I said a few weeks ago, Mr Speaker. It is okay for the Secretary of State to admit when he is wrong. As Tony Blair said yesterday, this strategy is “doomed to fail.” Why can the Secretary of State not see what the GMB and Tony Blair see, which is that clean power 2030 is doomed to fail and it is time for a change of approach? \p Ed Miliband: That is not what the report says. The shadow Minister is talking absolute nonsense. The point I was going to make was that he said:

“Look, nobody’s saying that net zero was a mistake. Net zero in the round was the eminently sensible thing to do.”

Those are not my words but his. Some people say that the Tory party has only one policy. Actually, it has two: it is against net zero and, through the shadow Minister, it is for net zero.