Energy White Paper

David Mundell Excerpts

Monday 14th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[David Mundell (Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale) (Con)]

I very much welcome the White Paper. My personal regret is that my own constituency cannot have a new nuclear power station because of the Scottish National party’s obsessive and dogmatic opposition to nuclear, but may I press my right hon. Friend again on the issue of oil and gas, which is so important to Scotland? Some 100,000 jobs depend on the industry. I heard what he said in relation to the transition deal and its appearance in quarter 1 next year. That is very welcome, not just because it was a manifesto commitment by the Conservative party at the last general election, but because it will bring certainty to those 100,000 workers in that industry.

[Alok Sharma]

My right hon. Friend is a voice of reason. I just wish the SNP would listen to him more.

The North sea transition deal was absolutely in the manifesto, and we want to use it as a vehicle to create new jobs as well as trade and investment opportunities. The whole point is also to ensure that we retain the skills of the highly skilled individuals we have in the sector. As I have said, we will be publishing details in Q1 2021, but this has been a real collaboration between the sector and the Government.