Energy Security and Net Zero – in the House of Commons at on 2 June 2026.
Tan Dhesi
Chair, Defence Committee, Chair, Defence Committee
What steps he is taking to help increase the production of domestic clean power.
Jacob Collier
Labour, Burton and Uttoxeter
What steps he is taking to help increase the production of clean power.
Ed Miliband
The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The two renewables auctions under this Government have secured power for the equivalent of 23 million homes, and we are embarked on the biggest nuclear building programme for 50 years. The war in Iran shows that we need to go further and faster, so we will open our next renewables auction next month. We recently signed contracts for a fleet of Rolls-Royce small modular reactors. Clean power is already reducing wholesale electricity prices by up to a quarter, and those steps will do more to protect families and businesses across our country.
Tan Dhesi
Chair, Defence Committee, Chair, Defence Committee
For my Slough constituents, the crisis in Iran and the naval blockade have had a profound impact on household budgets, but we have also been left vulnerable by previous Conservative-led Governments who ran down our energy system for over a decade, leaving us on the fossil fuel rollercoaster and susceptible to global fluctuations. Unlike our Tory predecessors who failed to invest and did not provide for our constituents, what measures are the Government taking to invest in cheap, clean, home-grown energy so that my Slough constituents, and others across the country, can be protected from those spikes in the cost of living?
Ed Miliband
The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The central fact that we cannot get away from is that we are price takers not price makers when it comes to oil and gas, and that is the fundamental contradiction at the heart of where the Opposition are. We are going to drive further and faster on clean power, including electrification across the economy. Indeed, customers are already better protected as a result of the renewables in our system, but we must go further and faster.
Jacob Collier
Labour, Burton and Uttoxeter
The US-Israel war has pushed up prices for my constituents and is yet more evidence that we need to be energy self-sufficient with clean power, so I greatly welcome the £2.6 billion investment in Rolls-Royce for small modular reactors. That is great news for my constituents, as well as those in Derby and the wider region, and those reactors will help with Britain’s energy security. Will the Secretary of State say more about how GB Energy will invest in such projects?
Ed Miliband
The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I was pleased to sign that contract with Rolls-Royce in the past few weeks. We are world leaders in small modular reactors and this is a massive innovation, not just for Britain but for the world. It is not just the jobs constructing the SMRs that are really important, but the jobs in the supply chain too. I look forward to working with my hon. Friend and Members across the House on ensuring that their constituents benefit from those good, well-paid jobs.
John Milne
Liberal Democrat, Horsham
To get the best out of intermittent energy producers such as wind and solar, we need to invest in battery energy storage systems. However, these face new safety challenges. The National Fire Chiefs Council recently issued guidance that understandably concentrates on firefighting techniques rather than design. The Minister has kindly met me in the past, but will he agree to a further meeting to specifically address the unmet needs in national construction standards?
Ed Miliband
The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. I know that the Energy Minister has met him and the National Fire Chiefs Council to discuss this issue. We take the safety of battery technology incredibly seriously, and I am sure that the Energy Minister will be happy to meet him again for further discussions.
Robert Jenrick
Reform UK, Newark
The Government say that less than 1% of the countryside will be covered in solar farms, but if the 7,000-acre Great North Road scheme, which is now before the Secretary of State, the 2,000-acre Steeple scheme, which is also now before the Secretary of State, and the 4,000-acre One Earth scheme, which will be before the Secretary of State shortly, are all approved, almost 10% of the land mass of my Constituency—one of the most rural and largest in England—will be covered in solar farms, with good-quality agricultural land in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire lost. How on earth is that fair to local communities?
Ed Miliband
The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
For reasons that the right hon. Gentleman will understand, I am not going to comment on individual planning decisions, because they have to go through the proper process, but I say to him that solar is the cheapest, cleanest form of power that we have. We can decide to bury our heads in the sand and stay on the fossil fuel rollercoaster, but the people who will pay for it are his constituents, because they are paying for it now in higher energy Bills. This Labour Government will keep going with the drive for clean power.
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
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