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Tag: Speeches

  • Andrea Leadsom – 2022 Speech on Energy Price Capping

    Andrea Leadsom – 2022 Speech on Energy Price Capping

    The speech made by Andrea Leadsom, the Conservative MP for South Northamptonshire, in the House of Commons on 8 September 2022.

    I start by saying: may God bless our Queen. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”]

    I sincerely welcome the announcement—it is fantastic that we have seized the massive problem that is facing us—which will give relief to so many households and businesses who have been terrified by the prospect of what was to come. I am convinced that that reassurance will be greatly pleasing to them.

    I want to take a couple of minutes to talk about some really low-hanging fruit that I do not think we have made enough of yet. With energy prices where they are, we as a Government could do a lot more. We could, for example, go house to house—through energy suppliers; not as Government officials—to assist people with looking at how they can reduce their energy bills. There are many practical ways and great ideas for doing that, not least of which are turning down boiler thermostats—people should not do that themselves at home—to make more effective use of energy and turning down the hot water tap pressure. Those things are really low-hanging fruit that could be done tomorrow, and forecasters suggest that they could save up to 10% off energy bills.

    Most important of all is insulation. Current energy prices are a game-changer for insulation. Recent research suggests that £1,000 could pay for basic cavity wall or loft insulation for the average household and that the sector could insulate up to half a million homes this winter and 1 million homes next year. That could be cost-neutral to the Treasury as it would not be paying the excess for the price cap. With energy prices at current levels, it is worth looking again at massively ramping up household insulation.

    Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)

    Will the right hon. Member give way?

    Dame Andrea Leadsom

    I will not give way because there is so little time.

    Finally, as Business Secretary and then as chair of the 1922 Backbench committee on business, energy and industrial strategy, so many businesses have said to me, “We cannot get a grid connection for our solar panels, so there is no point in doing it.” I would say to them that, with energy prices where they are, they could get themselves a battery and have some internal energy independence. Many businesses should be looking at that. The Government’s role should be to provide advice through the energy suppliers.

  • Ed Davey – 2022 Speech on Energy Price Capping

    Ed Davey – 2022 Speech on Energy Price Capping

    The speech made by Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat MP for Kingston and Surbiton, in the House of Commons on 8 September 2022.

    Following the earlier statement from Mr Speaker, I think our hearts, thoughts and prayers will be elsewhere, but I wanted to contribute to the debate and to agree with the right hon. Member for Forest of Dean (Mr Harper) and his questions on heating oil. That is a critical issue for people in rural communities, and we need answers immediately.

    What the Prime Minister has announced is not a freeze on people’s energy bills. In the middle of a cost of living emergency, the Conservatives are choosing to put energy bills up by another £500 for struggling families. That hike in people’s energy bills comes on top of the £700 rise we saw last April. Struggling families will be paying twice as much for energy as they were last year, and people will still be desperately worried about how they will keep warm this winter. Last May’s £400 discount will simply not make up for the enormous rise in energy bills. So where is the new support for families and pensioners who are struggling? Under the Prime Minister’s plan, fuel poverty will get worse, not better.

    I turn to how we think the Prime Minister is proposing to pay for the package. Why does it seem that the Government will be handing an eye-watering bill to taxpayers in the form of higher borrowing? We all know that that ultimately means higher taxes for taxpayers, and particularly for our children. That does not seem conservative, and it does not seem right. Why has she rejected the alternative of a windfall tax on today’s oil and gas giants, who are raking in enormous, unexpectedly high profits thanks to President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine? How is it fair to take money from future taxpayers—from our children—and hand it to today’s oil and gas barons? How is it responsible to borrow so much to pay for consumption when our economy is already in such a mess, with the pound falling so dangerously?

    The fair and responsible energy policy would be to increase investment massively in the cheapest and most popular forms of energy available to us: wind and solar. I was absolutely shocked that the Prime Minister did not announce a massive, fast expansion of renewables to bring people’s energy bills down.

    The Prime Minister has made some alarming choices today by rejecting cheap wind and solar power, raising energy bills even higher than they are now, refusing to give extra support to struggling families and pensioners, and paying for a policy with higher taxes on our children instead of a windfall tax on fossil fuels. Those are the wrong choices.

     

  • Mark Harper – 2022 Speech on Energy Price Capping

    Mark Harper – 2022 Speech on Energy Price Capping

    The speech made by Mark Harper, the Conservative MP for Forest of Dean, in the House of Commons on 8 September 2022.

    I will keep the scope of my comments brief, Mr Deputy Speaker, given the time available. The written statement included confirmation—the Prime Minister also confirmed this—that the Chancellor will set out the expected costs as part of the fiscal statement. Will those costs include the Government’s assumptions for how wholesale prices will move over the coming months and years? Yes, it is an estimate, but we have to make assumptions to calculate the cost. Secondly, and importantly, will the estimates of the cost of that package be independently scored by the Office for Budget Responsibility, or will they simply be the Government’s assessment of costs? It would be helpful if the Minister could confirm which of those it will be when he responds to the debate.

    I welcome wholeheartedly confirmation from the Prime Minister that people who are off the gas grid will be protected by this announcement. A full 40% of my constituents are off the gas grid, and I believe the number is broadly similar in the Prime Minister’s constituency. It is great to have confirmation that they will be helped, but a bit more detail on process is important. People who buy oil or liquefied petroleum gas tend to buy it in lumps—they have to fill a tank. If they were to place an order today, for example, to ensure they have sufficient energy, they will need to know whether the costs of that order will be covered by the price guarantee, or whether that will be only for deliveries that take place after 1 October. Although the details may need to be worked through, confirmation about that is incredibly important. It would be terrible if someone on a low income made a very expensive purchase today, and then discovered that they had inadvertently cut themselves out of help. Equally, we do not want people running out of energy by delaying those purchases.

    My final point is to flesh out what I said in my intervention on the Leader of the Opposition. My understanding is that over half of the £170 billion excess profit includes profits made by foreign companies on energy supplied to the United Kingdom. It is not within the scope of the Exchequer to tax that. Secondly, we already have a windfall tax. We are already taxing excess profits at a total rate of 65%. That windfall tax has been legislated for by this House, and it will stretch forward to December 2025. I do not really know what the Labour party is arguing for, and I noticed that after my intervention, the Leader of the Opposition would not say what rate he thought a windfall tax should raise—65% seems quite high to me, and it would be helpful if Labour could confirm what it believes it should be.

  • Carolyn Harris – 2022 Speech on Energy Price Capping

    Carolyn Harris – 2022 Speech on Energy Price Capping

    The speech made by Carolyn Harris, the Labour MP for Swansea East, in the House of Commons on 8 September 2022.

    Everyone will be affected by the rise in energy prices and will be looking for ways to cut back by being more careful with the appliances they use, or opting for alternative ways to keep warm and prepare meals. It is a worrying time for many of my constituents and for others the length and breadth of the country.

    For some, however, the worry and fear is even greater. More than 60,000 people across the UK are in need of renal replacement therapy in the form of dialysis or a transplant. My daughter-in-law, Hayleigh, is one of those. Hayleigh suffers from kidney failure, and has done since she was 11. A transplant at 15 gave her seven years of freedom, but for the past 11 years she has been back on dialysis. Home dialysis allows Hayleigh to spend more time with her family, and has even given her the opportunity to attend university, and go to work rather than spending three days a week in hospital. However, running the machine for 10 hours at a time, six nights a week, comes at a price. The approximate cost for electricity to run the home dialysis machine is currently almost £80 per month, and with energy prices set to soar, those costs will only increase, threatening the ability of many patients to continue their life-saving treatment at home.

    The charities Kidney Care UK and Popham Kidney Support in my constituency have recently contacted me about their concerns for patients, and the lack of support they are being offered by energy providers. In Wales, patients like Hayleigh are reimbursed by the Welsh Renal Clinic Network, but with the cost of extra energy needed for home dialysis machines expected to increase to £2,000 a year, the level of financial support will fall far short. The situation is even worse in other parts of the country, where reimbursement amounts vary considerably, with some patients receiving no help at all.

    The cost of kidney failure and other chronic conditions should not be borne by patients. It is not only dialysis patients who are affected. Many people depend on home electrical medical equipment—oxygen concentrators, nebulisers, artificial ventilators, stairlifts, or bed and bath hoists. Add to that the additional costs for heating and lighting, and many vulnerable people will be feeling the pain of this winter. No one should be in a position where they have to cut back their use of vital equipment for fear of paying their bills. For my daughter-in-law, and for all the Hayleighs out there who are looking at uncomfortable and unaffordable increases to their bills, will the Government ensure that sufficient financial support is made available to cover that essential electrical medical equipment?

  • Mel Stride – 2022 Speech on Energy Price Capping

    Mel Stride – 2022 Speech on Energy Price Capping

    The speech made by Mel Stride, the Conservative MP for Central Devon, in the House of Commons on 8 September 2022.

    I rise broadly to welcome these measures. We know that we live in terribly difficult times. Yesterday the Treasury Committee took evidence from the Governor of the Bank of England and other members of the Monetary Policy Committee, and the point was made that the impact of the energy price rises on households is about four times that which occurred in the 1970s. These are truly frightening times, and I am pleased that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has come forward with such a bold package of measures for consumers and, critically, for businesses over the next six months, with a review after three months. I was pleased to see the Bank of England liquidity facility for energy businesses totalling £40 billion, which I think will be important for the functioning of the marketplace, as well as the critical commitment to review the way that the pricing of our electricity is determined, whether in relation to gas or to the underlying costs of alternative means of energy production.

    I also want to focus briefly on the macroeconomic issues, which are easy to overlook. This is a huge intervention. The Prime Minister detailed that the Chancellor will come forward with costings at the emergency fiscal event that he is soon to present to the House. Alongside the tax reductions that have been mooted, plus other pressures on the public finance, it means that debt will almost certainly increase, as will the deficit. It has been stated that inflation will be assisted by these measures—that is true; inflation is just a measures of price rises relative to a previous period at a particular point in time. Although downward pressure on the consumer prices index from these freezes will be positive, it will be a stimulus to the economy and, through time, net inflation may increase. That will require a response from our central Bank, which might see interest rates increase in the more medium term, with increased servicing costs for our debt. We must see this very much in the round, and that is where the debate on the windfall tax should at least be considered. The Treasury Committee will be looking at that in some detail.

    My final point, in my remaining 30 seconds, is that when it comes to the emergency fiscal event, it is critical that we have an Office for Budget Responsibility independent forecast to take into account all those issues—the great uncertainty we are talking about, and the huge fiscal interventions for which the costings have not yet been presented to us. We must see what the impact of that will be on the public finances in order to reassure the markets.

  • Steve Baker – 2022 Statement on the Death of HM Queen Elizabeth II

    Steve Baker – 2022 Statement on the Death of HM Queen Elizabeth II

    The statement made by Steve Baker, the Minister of State for Northern Ireland, on 8 September 2022.

    Following the sad news today of the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, I would like to echo the words of the Secretary of State and other members of Cabinet.

    Her Majesty was unwavering in her dedication, selflessness and duty to the people of the UK and wider Commonwealth nations during her reign.

    This was particularly true for the people of Northern Ireland and her efforts to build reconciliation and a better future here.

    My thoughts today will be with The King and the entire Royal Family and I offer them my sincere condolences.

  • Queen Elizabeth II – 1947 Speech on Becoming 21

    Queen Elizabeth II – 1947 Speech on Becoming 21

    The speech made by Queen Elizabeth II (then Princess Elizabeth) in South Africa on 21 April 1947.

    On my twenty-first birthday I welcome the opportunity to speak to all the peoples of the British Commonwealth and Empire, wherever they live, whatever race they come from, and whatever language they speak.

    Let me begin by saying ‘thank you’ to all the thousands of kind people who have sent me messages of good will. This is a happy day for me; but it is also one that brings serious thoughts, thoughts of life looming ahead with all its challenges and with all its opportunity.

    At such a time it is a great help to know that there are multitudes of friends all round the world who are thinking of me and who wish me well. I am grateful and I am deeply moved.

    As I speak to you today from Cape Town I am six thousand miles from the country where I was born. But I am certainly not six thousand miles from home. Everywhere I have travelled in these lovely lands of South Africa and Rhodesia my parents, my sister and I have been taken to the heart of their people and made to feel that we are just as much at home here as if we had lived among them all our lives.

    That is the great privilege belonging to our place in the world-wide commonwealth – that there are homes ready to welcome us in every continent of the earth. Before I am much older I hope I shall come to know many of them.

    Although there is none of my father’s subjects from the oldest to the youngest whom I do not wish to greet, I am thinking especially today of all the young men and women who were born about the same time as myself and have grown up like me in terrible and glorious years of the second world war.

    Will you, the youth of the British family of nations, let me speak on my birthday as your representative? Now that we are coming to manhood and womanhood it is surely a great joy to us all to think that we shall be able to take some of the burden off the shoulders of our elders who have fought and worked and suffered to protect our childhood.

    We must not be daunted by the anxieties and hardships that the war has left behind for every nation of our commonwealth. We know that these things are the price we cheerfully undertook to pay for the high honour of standing alone, seven years ago, in defence of the liberty of the world. Let us say with Rupert Brooke: “Now God be thanked who has matched us with this hour”.

    I am sure that you will see our difficulties, in the light that I see them, as the great opportunity for you and me. Most of you have read in the history books the proud saying of William Pitt that England had saved herself by her exertions and would save Europe by her example. But in our time we may say that the British Empire has saved the world first, and has now to save itself after the battle is won.

    I think that is an even finer thing than was done in the days of Pitt; and it is for us, who have grown up in these years of danger and glory, to see that it is accomplished in the long years of peace that we all hope stretch ahead.

    If we all go forward together with an unwavering faith, a high courage, and a quiet heart, we shall be able to make of this ancient commonwealth, which we all love so dearly, an even grander thing – more free, more prosperous, more happy and a more powerful influence for good in the world – than it has been in the greatest days of our forefathers.

    To accomplish that we must give nothing less than the whole of ourselves. There is a motto which has been borne by many of my ancestors – a noble motto, “I serve”. Those words were an inspiration to many bygone heirs to the Throne when they made their knightly dedication as they came to manhood. I cannot do quite as they did.

    But through the inventions of science I can do what was not possible for any of them. I can make my solemn act of dedication with a whole Empire listening. I should like to make that dedication now. It is very simple.

    I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.

    But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do: I know that your support will be unfailingly given. God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.

     

  • Chris Heaton-Harris – 2022 Statement on the Death of HM Queen Elizabeth II

    Chris Heaton-Harris – 2022 Statement on the Death of HM Queen Elizabeth II

    The statement made by Chris Heaton-Harris, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, on 8 September 2022.

    I am deeply saddened at the news of the loss of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

    Throughout her reign, Her Majesty has been the matriarch and pillar of our country and the Commonwealth. She has always provided wise counsel, admirably and selflessly, fulfilling a lifetime commitment to public service.

    Her Majesty dedicated herself to our family of nations, no more so was this apparent than in Northern Ireland, We will always be greatly indebted for her efforts to promote reconciliation and the fostering of better community relations, ensuring peace and stability.

    I want to offer my sincere condolences to The King and the entire Royal Family on their loss. The thoughts of the people of Northern Ireland, like the rest of the United Kingdom and around the world, are with them at this time.

  • George W Bush – 2022 Statement Following the Death of HM Queen Elizabeth II

    George W Bush – 2022 Statement Following the Death of HM Queen Elizabeth II

    The statement made by George W Bush on 8 September 2022.

    Laura and I were honored to have known Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She was a woman of great intellect, charm, and wit. Spending time at Buckingham Palace, and having tea with Her Majesty – and her Corgis – is among our fondest memories of the presidency. Queen Elizabeth ably led England through dark moments with her confidence in her people and her vision for a brighter tomorrow. Our world benefitted from her steady resolve, and we are grateful for her decades of service as sovereign. Americans in particular appreciate her strong and steadfast friendship. Laura and I join our fellow citizens in sending our heartfelt condolences to the Royal family and the British people.

  • Liz Truss – 2022 Statement Following the Death of HM Queen Elizabeth II

    Liz Truss – 2022 Statement Following the Death of HM Queen Elizabeth II

    The statement made by Liz Truss, the Prime Minister, on 8 September 2022.

    We are all devastated by the news we have just heard from Balmoral.

    The death of Her Majesty The Queen is a huge shock to the nation and to the world.

    Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built.

    Our country has grown and flourished under her reign.

    Britain is the great country it is today because of her.

    She ascended the throne just after the Second World War.

    She championed the development of the Commonwealth – from a small group of seven countries to a family of 56 nations spanning every continent of the world.

    We are now a modern, thriving, dynamic nation.

    Through thick and thin, Queen Elizabeth II provided us with the stability and the strength that we needed.

    She was the very spirit of Great Britain – and that spirit will endure.

    She has been our longest-ever reigning monarch.

    It is an extraordinary achievement to have presided with such dignity and grace for 70 years.

    Her life of service stretched beyond most of our living memories.

    In return, she was loved and admired by the people in the United Kingdom and all around the world.

    She has been a personal inspiration to me and to many Britons. Her devotion to duty is an example to us all.

    Earlier this week, at 96, she remained determined to carry out her duties as she appointed me as her 15th Prime Minister.

    Throughout her life she has visited more than 100 countries and she has touched the lives of millions around the world.

    In the difficult days ahead, we will come together with our friends…

    ….across the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and the world…

    …to celebrate her extraordinary lifetime of service.

    It is a day of great loss, but Queen Elizabeth II leaves a great legacy.

    Today the Crown passes – as it is has done for more than a thousand years – to our new monarch, our new head of state:

    His Majesty King Charles III.

    With the King’s family, we mourn the loss of his mother.

    And as we mourn, we must come together as a people to support him.

    To help him bear the awesome responsibility that he now carries for us all.

    We offer him our loyalty and devotion just as his mother devoted so much to so many for so long.

    And with the passing of the second Elizabethan age, we usher in a new era in the magnificent history of our great country,

    – exactly as Her Majesty would have wished –

    by saying the words…

    God save the King.