Speeches by Miliband.

“I think I have explained to you the practices we are following and—”

“This is a discussion we should continue to have. The principle that you set out, which is when communities live near large-scale energy infrastructure they should benefit from it, I agree with; that is community benefit in a broad sense. Specifically, the excitement for me of the local power plan is that it is a shift …”

“With certain countries, we have certain approaches, and with others, we have other approaches, as have previous Governments—”

“We are following the previous practice, as I said, but do ask me any questions about our relationship with China.”

“As I say, just ask me any questions you like on this topic.”

“I don’t know the answer, but I am happy to find out.”

“Even when the sun is not shining, Sir Christopher, solar works.”

“There’s a headline: Miliband not blamed for sun not shining. That is extremely generous.”

“Oh for goodness’ sake—most definitely not.”

“I will let Clive come in; I am sure that he will happily do so. I do recognise that. It is worth saying why this is so important; it was in my answer to Wera as well. This changes people’s conception about ownership of energy. It is the idea that local communities can not only cut their bills but get a stream of income…”

“As I say, we are following the previous practice—”

“Yes; I am saying to you that that is why we have to be very cautious about our energy system.”

“Mr Thomas, do ask me any questions you like.”

“I have answered the question, Mr Thomas.”

“Thank you so much, Chair. It is great to be here again. I want to thank the Committee and its members for your work. We came in 19 months ago with a clear mission. Since I saw you last, I believe that we have made really important progress on that mission—on bills, jobs and climate. I thought that I would briefly remin…”

“We always look at the balance, Chair, between the costs of building the network and where they fall, but part of my job is to be candid with you. Have we inherited a massive backlog of failing to build the network we need? Yes. We could decide to build a whole new fleet of gas-fired power stations, but that would also …”

“That depends on the policy choices we make between now and 2030. What the Chancellor did is an important downpayment and an important measure, but the cost of living crisis is deep and long standing. That is why I think it is a start.”

“Both together. I want to be clear about this: there is absolute, universal agreement on this. The cost of living crisis is the biggest issue families face. We made our commitments to cut bills deliberately because we recognise that, and we are determined to do it. The reason I highlighted the role of the Chancellor in …”

“That is a very specific and very legitimate question. Let me just say something about Fingleton. It is a really important review looking at how we can speed up nuclear build, and I am really grateful to John Fingleton for his work. We have said that we will have a comprehensive response to Fingleton by the end of Febru…”

“Well, there are costs to be borne, but it comes back to the theme of the session: who bears the burden? Truthfully, we have two things going on. In order to get away from the rollercoaster of fossil fuels that we have been on, the right thing to do is clean power, which can cut bills. At the same time, we have to build…”