Speeches by Miliband.

“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 …”

“I completely agree. I said in my statement yesterday that it was very important to look at questions of not just the financial barriers that community energy groups face or the capacity barriers, but the system barriers. That is one of the discussions that we are going to have. Sometimes you do things in politics and y…”

“No, we are going to need to do more.”

“Well, you obviously do not have any questions actually about the substance. What is your question on the substance, Mr Thomas?”

“I have given an answer. I do not have any more to add to the answers I gave.”

“We made a commitment of getting up to £300 off bills by 2030, and that remains our commitment.”

“Inevitably, I want people to know more about our mission. That is my job, the job of our Ministers and the job of everyone who supports our mission. I had the pleasure of reading some of your Committee’s testimony in preparing for this session, and I was particularly interested in the testimony of Luke Tryl from More i…”

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

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

“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…”

“It goes back to the word that I used in my opening statement: delivery. What is really exciting about the phase we are now moving into is that people are going to see the benefits of our agenda: 2.7 million extra people this winter have the warm home discount as a result of the decisions taken by this Government; peopl…”

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

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

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

“We proceed on a certain basis with some countries and on different bases with different countries, as has been the practice of previous Governments. But honestly, ask me any questions about our relationship with China, and I will answer them for you.”

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

“The biggest responsibility is to deliver, and that includes delivering lower bills. That is why what the Chancellor did in the Budget is so important. It is really important to recognise the historic nature of what the Chancellor did. People have talked for a long time about the costs of building the infrastructure tha…”

“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.”

“Candidly, the question about what they took into account for their projections is a matter for them. It is obviously something that we will scrutinise as part of our response to CB7. Let me just go to the more general question—”

“I think NESO is doing a very valiant job. It is doing a difficult reordering of the process, and it is quite reliant on the transmission operators, but they all have a responsibility to step up.”