Action Against Houthi Maritime Attacks
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle(2 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)
I thank the Prime Minister for his statement. As I made clear last week, the Liberal Democrats accept the case for limited strikes against the Houthis, as long as they remain limited. As the Prime Minister updates the House for the second time on this matter, there is remarkably little clarity about what the next steps are and when the UK’s objectives will be judged to have been fulfilled. Nor has the Prime Minister sufficiently addressed how he plans to avoid regional escalation in this most fragile of regions. I thank him for agreeing that the House can debate this matter tomorrow, but will he not give the House the opportunity to vote on this matter, not least given the huge cross-party support for limited strikes? That would surely strengthen the signal he intends to give.
Points of Order
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle
Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. At Prime Minister’s questions on 19 April, the Prime Minister claimed that last year the number of NHS dentists in England had increased by 500. However, today the British Dental Association has revealed that the number of dentists delivering NHS work fell by almost 700 in the 2022-23 financial year. I am sure that the Prime Minister did not intentionally aim to mislead the House, but have you had any indication from him or his office that he intends to come back to the House to correct the record and give Members the latest information?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle(1 year, 1 month ago)
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Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)
Mr Speaker
Order. Please do not take advantage of the Order Paper.
Referral of Prime Minister to Committee of Privileges
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle(1 year, 12 months ago)
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Stephen Hammond
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Unless I misheard the right hon. Gentleman, he has just said that I wrote something—[Interruption.]
Ed Davey
Instead, Conservative MPs have so far ducked their responsibility, only eroding that public trust and confidence even further.
The Solicitor General, for example, once said that his red line for resignation from the Government was if there was a “scintilla of a suggestion” of unlawful action. Well, the Prime Minister has been fined by the police, yet the hon. and learned Member for Cheltenham (Alex Chalk) is still drawing his Government salary. By keeping the Prime Minister in his job, Conservative MPs have made themselves guilty by association. They should know that if they vote to kick the can down the road again, if they vote to bend the rules to let one of their own off the hook again, if they do not hold this Prime Minister to account for his law-breaking and lies by voting him out, their constituents will hold them to account at the ballot box.
Perhaps the hon. Member for Winchester (Steve Brine) should listen to the vet in his constituency who says:
“If I broke the rules and lied about it, I would get struck off. So why hasn’t the Prime Minister been?”
Lifelong Conservative voters in Guildford are saying they cannot vote for the Conservatives any more. Conservative Members complain about elections; the problem is that if they will not hold this Prime Minister to account, the electorate will have to hold this Prime Minister to account.
A constituent of the right hon. Member for Wokingham (John Redwood) tells me that his MP—
Mr Speaker
Order. We are mentioning a load of Members and Members’ constituents. I hope the Members were notified that they were going to be namechecked.
Mr Speaker
Shh. So I would suggest that we do not name any more unless the Members are aware of it. It is only fair that we do that.
Ed Davey
I take your ruling, Mr Speaker. I was quoting from their constituents. That was the point, so that their voices could be heard in this House.
The past 24 hours have shown that the Government are in total disarray. Conservative MPs are clearly too ashamed to back the Prime Minister but still too complicit to sack him. The people each of us represent know the truth. They know the Prime Minister deliberately misled them and deliberately misled this House. It is an insult to their constituents, especially bereaved families in their seats, and it will be another Conservative stain on our democracy. If Conservative Members fail to sack this Prime Minister, they will leave the British people no choice. In the council elections on 5 May, let alone the next general election, it will become the patriotic duty of every voter to send this Conservative Government a message that enough is enough by voting against them. The Prime Minister has held this House, and the whole country, in contempt for far too long. Now it must be this House’s turn to hold him in contempt.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle(2 years, 3 months ago)
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Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)
Happy new year, Mr Speaker! I am sure the Prime Minister will want to join me and my Liberal Democrat colleagues in welcoming my hon. Friend the new Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan).
People’s already high heating bills are about to jump by more than 50%, with average energy bills rising by nearly £700 a year. Gas price rises will push millions more families into fuel poverty, when we know many are already afraid even to open their heating bills. Does the Prime Minister accept that he could be doing much more than he is to prevent millions of people from going hungry and cold this year while he remains—for now at least—in the warmth and comfort of No. 10?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle(3 years, 3 months ago)
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Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD) [V]
Good afternoon Mr Speaker. May I add my warmest of welcomes to President Biden and Vice-President Harris on their inauguration in Washington today?
In answer to my question in July, the Prime Minister promised an independent inquiry into the UK’s response to covid. In the six months since, covid cases have soared, our NHS is on its knees, and 50,000 more people have died. The UK now has one of the highest death rates in the world—higher, even, than Trump’s America. To learn the lessons from what has gone so devastatingly wrong under his leadership, will the Prime Minister commit to launching this year the inquiry that he promised last year?
Economic Update
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Sir Edward Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)
Our economy is suffering a heart attack, one deeper and bigger than in 2008, so the Chancellor has a serious responsibility and he deserves constructive engagement from everyone in this House, including my party. His main task is to ensure that there is confidence among the business community and the British people. I have to tell him that although he has made a good start, this is still very much a work in progress. His package for the business sector was large, but may I urge him to say far more about the loan terms he is putting forward? Many small businesses will be very worried about taking on this debt. May I also urge him to go much faster to give confidence to the ordinary people who are suffering in our constituencies?
Police Grant Report
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle(5 years, 2 months ago)
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Sir Edward Davey
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Is it in order for the Home Secretary to tell me, in answer to my question, that the £24 that the Government are allowing local police authorities to raise is in the report, when I have checked the report and cannot find any mention of the £24 to which he drew the House’s attention? That report is the subject of tonight’s vote.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Sir Lindsay Hoyle)
In fairness, I think you have clarified the record in the way you have read the report.
Annual Energy Statement
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle(9 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Davey
My hon. Friend has asked very detailed questions. Let me refer him to two recent publications. At the end of last year I published a policy statement on interconnectors, because I think this is a critical issue that has been long overlooked, and Ofgem has published proposals for a new regulatory regime to facilitate investment in interconnectors. However, we will gather the information for which my hon. Friend asked specifically, and I will send it to him in writing.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Finally, I call the irrepressible Thomas Docherty.
Thomas Docherty (Dunfermline and West Fife) (Lab)
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker.
The Secretary of State will obviously be aware that ScottishPower, which owns Longannet power station in my constituency, has decided not to bid for the 2018 market at this stage. When I met representatives of ScottishPower last week, they expressed concern about German-owned RWE’s legal challenge to Project TransmiT. When does the Secretary of State expect that legal dispute to be resolved?
Energy Prices
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle(9 years, 10 months ago)
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Paul Flynn
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I came to the Chamber expecting a debate about energy prices. Nowhere on the Order Paper does it say that we would be treated to a drivelling, ad hominem attack on the Leader of the Opposition.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
That is not a point of order. You have made your point, Mr Flynn, but it is up to the Secretary of State whether he wishes to give way. He is giving way now and again. It is not as though he could not hear you, so I suspect he is not giving way by choice.
Mr Davey
The House can probably see why I made that choice—[Interruption.] Frit? That is a joke.
The forward markets help competition, smooth prices for customers and make fixed-price deals possible. Under Labour’s proposals, there would be no more fixed-price deals for consumers—ironically, the area in which competition between companies is greatest. The plain truth is that this latest headline-grabbing, price-control state intervention is as unworkable and damaging as Labour’s last one. Just like under the last Labour Government, such policies would simply mess up our energy markets and hit consumers hard. Labour reduced competition and created the big six. We have had the hard task of clearing up Labour’s energy mess. This Government have reformed the energy markets and boosted competition so that the big six—created by Labour—are now being challenged like never before.
We have seen 12 new entrants into the market. The share of independent energy firms has risen from less than 1% to almost 6%—and fast. According to Energy UK, in May this year for the first time ever more than half of people switching switched to an independent supplier. Small suppliers have gained more than 1 million customers since May last year.
The Government have worked to help all consumers. We have been harder and more effective in working for consumers in just four years than Labour managed in 13. We have championed switching, acting to make it simpler, with fewer confusing tariffs and easier to read bills—all things that Labour never did. People now understand the choices they have and are more confident about switching. We have acted to speed up switching too. Ofgem this week confirmed that switching times will be cut in half by the end of the year, from the ridiculous more than five weeks that we inherited, and that we are on course for my objective of 24-hour switching within four years.
We have even acted to encourage new forms of switching. Labour talked about the collective principle, but never did anything about it. The Cheaper Energy Together firm is piloting initiatives around the country that have saved tens of thousands of people millions of pounds. Just today, in the latest collective switch—the Big Deal—we learned that customers on a typical standard tariff with a big six supplier could save £210 by switching to the new deal delivered for consumers who have come together to buy energy. That is a new deal from an independent energy supplier which entered the UK energy market only last year. That is competition working.
We are always looking to do more for consumers, to sharpen competition and to explore new business models. That is our approach to helping people cut their bills. At the next election, the choice on energy bills will be clear. People can either trust Labour politicians to fix energy prices for them with state intervention or they can trust the growing number of new, smaller energy suppliers which are already delivering for millions of people, taking on Labour’s big six with competition. People can opt for the right hon. Lady’s approach to improving our energy markets—policy on the hoof with 1970s-style price controls—or they could opt for the most detailed ever, in-depth inquiry into Britain’s energy markets by independent experts.
Above all, at the next election, people can vote for energy price freezes under Labour or back the cuts in energy bills our policies are now making happen. Labour and the Leader of the Opposition flunked energy policy when they were in office. We must not ever let them do that again to Britain’s energy system.
Energy Markets Competition Assessment
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle
Mr Davey
The hon. Gentleman can do that by backing this reference by the competition authorities, which will ask all those questions. I say to him and his constituents that if they are worried now, they should look at the best buy tables and use the competition that is there now. I hope that, as a result of this reference, we will supercharge that competition. There is choice now, because this Government have brought it in.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Last but certainly not least, the voice of Hyndburn, Graham Jones.
Graham Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)
I was most interested in the answer that the Secretary of State gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Blaenau Gwent (Nick Smith)—that he had had four years of impatience or that he had been impatient over the period. Looking back, does he not regret that the Energy Act 2013, which took more than a year to go through Parliament, does not contain a single concrete measure to improve competition in either the wholesale or the retail energy market?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle(10 years, 3 months ago)
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Mr Davey
I can agree with the hon. Gentleman on the cost issue and that we need reform in the wholesale market because of the vertically integrated model, but I have to remind him and Opposition Members that that model for the big six was created under the previous Government, and we are tackling the issue—
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Order. I think that we have got the point.
Annual Energy Statement
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle(10 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Order. We must have very short questions in order to try to get everyone in. I understand how important this is.
Mr Davey
We are helping the fuel-poor and people who have problems with their bills through, for example, the warm home discount, which takes £135 off bills. We are publishing a guide. I hope that the hon. Gentleman and every right hon. and hon. Member will use it to help their constituents.
The hon. Gentleman talks about the wholesale market. The previous Government did nothing on competition in the wholesale market; they made it worse. This Government, with Ofgem, which Labour Members want to abolish, are taking measures to ensure there is far more competition in the wholesale markets. That is how to prevent the big six and their vertical integration models from pushing up prices. The Liberal Democrats are the party of competition; Labour is the party of the big six.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Last, but certainly not least, I call Andrew Percy.
Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole) (Con)
I can only assume it is because I am from Yorkshire, Mr Deputy Speaker.
The Energy Secretary rightly pointed out how Labour’s non-freeze con would cost jobs and investment. I and my hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes (Martin Vickers) heard from a local business—a big employer. We were told, with specific reference to Labour’s price freeze con, that it has lost a major contract. This is costing jobs and investment. The uncertainty that has been created in our energy market will not do anything for bills, but it will cost jobs.
Energy Prices and Profits
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle(10 years, 7 months ago)
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Barry Gardiner
The Secretary of State knows full well that what he is saying is disingenuous. When Labour created the new electricity trading arrangements, we were moving from two major companies to six. When it created the British electricity trading and transmission arrangements, it expanded the transmission arrangements as well. When it introduced Ofgem, it was introducing a regulator into a competitive situation. He knows full well that in 2007 and 2008, when the Leader of the Opposition was the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, energy prices were going down. It is in the last few years that they have rocketed by 41%. All the accusations that he has just made are phoney and he knows the reality.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Order. The hon. Gentleman has been in this Chamber long enough to know that he should be asking a question rather than making a speech.
Mr Davey
I was not making phoney accusations, but giving the facts and the history. Labour may want to run away from its history, but we will hold it to its record.
Before I talk about the action that I and the Government are taking to help consumers, let me return to Labour’s three-point plan, having already demolished its first proposal to abolish Ofgem. The House might like to note that the abolition of Ofgem is not recommended by the Energy and Climate Change Committee.
Labour’s second proposal is to drop Ofgem’s long-awaited reforms of the wholesale energy market in favour of reintroducing the pool. It was Labour that abolished the pool just over 10 years ago, as my hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood (Mr Spencer) reminded the House, at an estimated cost of £1.4 billion. Labour said that is was not working—wait for it!—in the interests of consumers. Apparently things have changed. However, under the policies that Labour put in place after it abolished the pool, things have not got much better. Labour’s abolition of the pool produced the vertically integrated energy markets that we see today. Independent generators find it tough to get into the wholesale market because of the changes that Labour made. Independent suppliers do not find the wholesale market competitive enough to supply their customers. Electricity prices are therefore likely to be higher than they should be.
The Government and Ofgem want to fix Labour’s mistake. We do not want to reintroduce the pool, because that would be an expensive distraction and would not tackle the real problem, which is liquidity in the forward markets. We are going to tackle that with a well thought through package that is designed to drive competition to help consumers. Ofgem’s “secure and promote” proposals include the idea of a market maker and mandating the six vertically integrated companies—the big six—to publish the prices at which they will buy and sell up to two years in advance. That will help independent suppliers and large power producers.
As Secretary of State, I want to be sure that such reforms by the regulator work and have teeth, so that they drive competition. That was why I introduced into the Energy Bill reserve powers to act should Ofgem’s reforms not work. In other words, whereas Labour wants to go back to a failed policy that it got rid of itself, we are taking the tough measures needed to boost competition and help the consumer.
Energy Policy
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle(11 years, 4 months ago)
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Mr Davey
I work closely with my German counterparts, particularly Peter Altmaier, and I know that they are having a big debate in Germany called the “Energiewende” looking at how they will deal with the implications of reducing their nuclear industry. I am sure that my hon. Friend would understand that, given our close partnership with Germany, I would not wish to tread on Herr Altmaier’s toes, but this country is investing in nuclear. We are putting forward a regime that we think is attractive, and Hitachi’s £700 million investment in the Horizon project shows that international companies and international capital believe we have got it right.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Last but not least, I call Martin Horwood.
Martin Horwood (Cheltenham) (LD)
Does the Secretary of State agree that, in time, feed-in tariffs with contracts for difference will provide a means of supporting a diverse emerging and fast-changing renewables industry that is good for the environment and fairer to households than the outgoing renewables obligation system? Will he reconsider extending that subsidy to a mature and inflexible nuclear industry dominated by a single French nationalised company that is trying to seal the deal in secret before we have even passed the legislation?
Jobs and Growth in a Low-carbon Economy
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle
Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)
I welcome the Secretary of State to his post, in which he has the opportunity to set a new course for the Government. May I suggest constructively that, first, he needs to give certainty to green investors, big and small? The Government have shaken that certainty—he should not listen to his officials. Secondly, he needs to avoid carbon leakage from existing energy-intensive users, whose confidence his predecessor managed to shake. If he can deal with those two things, which have gone deeply downhill in the past two years, he will do this country, green jobs and the green economy a service, in both steel and wind.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Order. There seems to be a lot of wind in these long interventions from both sides. Can we have shorter interventions? I should say to Front Benchers, and let Back Benchers know, that it looks like we will have to introduce a limit of six minutes because of the amount of time that has been taken.
Mr Davey
Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker.
I know the hon. Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies) takes a real interest in such issues and has a good track record in speaking up for them, but I do not recognise his points. My right hon. Friend the Member for Eastleigh (Chris Huhne) played a fantastic leadership role as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. He set the Government’s ambitions at a far higher level than any previous Government. It is my job to deliver on those, which I intend to do.
Daylight Saving Bill
Debate between Ed Davey and Lindsay Hoyle(12 years, 3 months ago)
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Mr MacNeil
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Is it in order for the Minister to speak so quickly that it is hard for him to be understood?
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
That is not a point of order. It is up to the Minister how quickly he speaks. We do not place a limit on how fast or how slowly Ministers speak, and thank goodness for that.
Mr Davey
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker.
I should like to speak to the lead amendment in this group, amendment 59, which seeks to turn the Bill into a summer time extension Bill by changing the dates on which summer time ends. I think that the hon. Member for Christchurch realises that that would not be compatible with the EU directive on summer time arrangements, which has been in force for many years. The House might wish to reflect—
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Mr Chope, as a long-serving Member of the House, you know, as I do, that it is up to the Minister whether he gives way or not.
Mr Davey
I am showing the hon. Gentleman the courtesy that he showed to the other Members of the House who wished to speak on this matter.
The House might wish to reflect on the fact that, when the directive was passed, other member states changed their dates to coincide with those of the United Kingdom. I therefore do not think that we should change the nature of the Bill promoted by my hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point and amended in Committee. We should now proceed to debate the next group of amendments.