Claire Coutinho

Voted AYE on: King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (p)

Claire Coutinho voted AYE on 'King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (p)' (104-316, defeated)

Voted NO on: King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (l)

Claire Coutinho voted NO on 'King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (l)' (78-408, defeated)

Voted AYE on: King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (o)

Claire Coutinho voted AYE on 'King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (o)' (104-317, defeated)

Voted NO on: King's Speech Motion for an Address

Claire Coutinho voted NO on 'King's Speech Motion for an Address' (307-171, passed)

Voted NO on: King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (l)

Claire Coutinho voted NO on 'King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (l)' (78-408, defeated)

Voted AYE on: King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (o)

Claire Coutinho voted AYE on 'King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (o)' (104-317, defeated)

Voted NO on: King's Speech Motion for an Address

Claire Coutinho voted NO on 'King's Speech Motion for an Address' (307-171, passed)

Voted AYE on: King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (p)

Claire Coutinho voted AYE on 'King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (p)' (104-316, defeated)

Energy Security

Will the Secretary of State give way?

Voted AYE on: King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (i)

Claire Coutinho voted AYE on 'King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (i)' (108-323, defeated)

Voted AYE on: King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (i)

Claire Coutinho voted AYE on 'King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (i)' (108-323, defeated)

Spoke in debate: Energy Security

Parliamentary appearance by Claire Coutinho

Energy Security

First, let me say to the hon. Gentleman that bills came down £500 under me; they have gone up by £200 because of the Secretary of State’s plans. Secondly, let me tell him another hard truth. He should listen to this; he might learn something. Cutting off production in the North sea does not mean that we use any less oil and gas. Production is not linked to consumption. All it means is that we will import more of that gas from abroad. That is weaker and it makes us more reliant on imports.

Energy Security

Let me tell the hon. Lady. Under the last Labour Government, which the Energy Secretary was part of—[Interruption.] Let me explain. Not a single new nuclear power plant was started. When we came into power in 2015 and got control of the energy brief, there was one nuclear welder left in the country. It is the stop-start approach that kills the nuclear industry. Here is the problem: the Government have killed the pipeline again. These are the same old mistakes, and I am raising them because we ar

Energy Security

I know that the hon. Gentleman’s party has changed position on this recently, and I welcome that change. As I have said, the North sea is a foundational industry. It is not just about the oil and gas it provides. It is not just about the tax revenues. It is not just about the jobs that exist within that industry. It is about all those other industries it supports, including the chemicals and plastics industries. By the way, even the renewables industry supports more drilling in the North sea, be

Energy Security

I will very happily ask the Secretary of State the question—[Interruption.] Well, he said he would happily give way; he does not look so happy now. In government, I started work on the true costing of renewables, because the Department does not have an accurate costing of energy—it does not have an accurate costing of clean power 2030. Why has he not published one?

Energy Security

I will make a bit more progress. Here is the fundamental bind that the Labour party is in. It does not matter who its next leader is—they will all fail. Its supposedly popular leadership contenders will become unpopular very quickly when they cannot keep their promises. It happened to us in government. It is happening to Labour now. It is happening to Reform at council level. It will happen to whoever is in government next unless they face up to the trade-offs that get us better growth. Growth i

Energy Security

The North sea is a vital part of our industry. It provides us not only with the gas that we need for energy security but with the feedstock that feeds into our chemicals and plastics industries. There is a whole supply chain of other industries that rely on the North sea and on our having a successful industrial base. If we lose just one of those foundational industries, it is like dominoes: the rest will go. If we keep offshoring British emissions, it will not help the climate and it will not h

Energy Security

I will just make a bit of progress. Now let us talk about electricity. A key part of the Secretary of State’s plan is to make us more reliant on electricity imports. He does not like to talk about it, but at the height of winter, when we need it most, we will be importing twice as much electricity by 2030 as we did when this Government came into office. What does that mean? It means relying on the goodwill of France and Norway to keep the lights on in Britain. I remind the House that we are now

Energy Security

People change their minds when they look at facts—[Interruption.] I am not hiding from this. I think the hon. Gentleman needs to look at the overall record of the things I said in government. The first thing I said when I went into position was that we cannot impoverish ourselves in the name of net zero. I started a true costing of renewables in the Department, because we did not have a proper costing of energy. Who cancelled that work? It was the Secretary of State. I backed the North sea; I si