Minister quizzed over carbon reduction plan

EAST Runcorn’s Labour MP Mike Amesbury has made his first public comments in Parliament since seizing Tory-held Weaver Vale from Conservative Graham Evans in the General Election.

Mr Amesbury made his debut by pressing Claire Perry, business, energy and industrial strategy minister, over answers on when the Government plans to publish its carbon reduction plan.

Mrs Perry said Whitehall intends to publish the document after summer recess.

She added that she was ‘proud’ that her constituency of Devizes is home to Britain’s ‘leading carbon capture and storage research facility’ and urged Mr Amesbury to welcome the Government’s ‘progress’.

The Conservative MP said the UK was the first country in the world to set binding carbon budgets and had ‘over-achieved’ in that field. Her department published a green paper in January outlining the goals and some potential features for a ‘clean growth’ plan in January.

Nick Hurd, the climate change and industry minister who announced the report, said the country needed to update its ‘outdated’ energy system and he said funding had been increased to generate jobs in that sector.

Speaking in the House Of Commons, Mr Amesbury, whose Weaver Vale constituency spans much of east Runcorn, Frodsham, Daresbury and Northwich, said: “Again, we do not seem to have a date for publication.

“The minister talks about a date after the recess, but what specific date is that?

“Does she not agree that this delay is creating considerable uncertainty for the business community, and that it has the potential to increase energy bills?”

Mrs Perry said: “I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his place.

“He will know that we are talking about setting a trajectory of budgets from 2022 and beyond.

“The progress we are making is absolutely exceptional, both domestically and internationally.

“Perhaps he is new in his place, but he could look in his diary and check when the house returns from the summer recess.

“My intention is to publish the plan when the house returns from the summer recess.”