Mr Timothy Eggar: When I listened to the right hon. Member for Sedgefield (Mr. Blair), I was very surprised that he appeared unable even to seek to address the West Lothian question. It had never occurred to me that he would come to a debate of this importance without a well-rehearsed answer to that question. But having listened to the right hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Ashdown) and his extraordinarily...
Mr Timothy Eggar: I hope that the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, but I have only 10 minutes. I should love to give way, but the 10-minutes rule makes that difficult. I would go further. I wonder why, almost uniquely in Westminster, the Prime Minister of the day can appoint Ministers only from the House or occasionally the House of Lords. In other systems it is expected and accepted that a Prime Minister can...
Mr Timothy Eggar: I much enjoyed the speech of the hon. Member for Newham, North-West (Mr. Banks), but I should tell him that the Olga Korbut award for the perfect Labour somersault will have to go to the hon. Member for Brent, East (Mr. Livingstone), who did it with slightly more panache. It is with some relief that I can now say publicly what I have long felt privately on European issues. Within the...
Mr Timothy Eggar: My Department received five representations. I announced additional allocations to Rechar and other European structural funds community initiatives to the House on 3 July.
Mr Timothy Eggar: I thank the hon. Gentleman for coming along to my meeting. I was particularly grateful to him for telling me that he was coming via Mr. Matthew Parris. I am sure that he will find that my answer is more beneficial as a result of that meeting. I was able to tell him, for example, that his constituency will also benefit from Resider. I hope that a decision on that will be made by the Commission...
Mr Timothy Eggar: I can do better than that. I am in the business of offering meetings, and I would be delighted to offer my hon. Friend a meeting to discuss it.
Mr Timothy Eggar: My Department is working with the steel industry to ensure that it is well placed to deliver the best quality and range of steel products required to meet demand from users at home and abroad.
Mr Timothy Eggar: Since it is a time for pleasantries, I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on the publication of his book today. I notice that it marks yet another step in his movement towards a Front-Bench position, which he so desires. I should warn him, however, having read the press release about his book, that he may be harming rather than helping his chances because it contains more policy commitments than...
Mr Timothy Eggar: take my hon. Friend's point, but part of Government's role is to assist our industry to compete effectively at home and abroad.
Mr Timothy Eggar: I beg to move, to leave out from "House" to the end of the Question and to add instead thereof: `congratulates the Government on its privatisation of the former state energy sector; notes that its market-based energy policies have led to lower prices and better services for consumers; and looks forward to the further benefits to consumers which will flow from the opening up of the gas and...
Mr Timothy Eggar: I am always willing to allow the hon. Gentleman to speak for the Labour party, because he is its real core. The hon. Member for Leeds, West does not have the guts to stand up for anything.
Mr Timothy Eggar: There we have it. That intervention is interesting, because, a few years ago, the hon. Member for Bolsover would not have prefaced his remarks by saying, "I believe." He would have said, "The Labour Government, if they come into power, will renationalise the coal industry."
Mr Timothy Eggar: I think that it is the hon. Member for Leeds, West, because he is squirming. He has discovered what all previous Labour energy spokesmen have discovered: they cannot make a single pronouncement, because they are frightened of the hon. Member for Bolsover and what he might do to them. They are concerned about making any commitment at all. Let us go on and examine what the motion says....
Mr Timothy Eggar: No, I shall not give way for the moment. I wish to deal seriously with the points made by the hon. Member for Leeds, West. Although he did not have the guts to do so from the Dispatch Box, during the past two or three hours he has been running from television studio to television studio and from radio station to radio station saying that he has a leaked document that shows that British...
Mr Timothy Eggar: The hon. Gentleman did indeed read something out from a document. The problem is that the document is from a company that competes with British Energy; so he has been going around claiming that British Energy has been deceiving shareholders, basing his allegation on a document that comes from a competitor of British Energy.
Mr Timothy Eggar: The hon. Gentleman says that it is not a competitor of British Energy. I know that he is ignorant about the energy sector, but he seems to be unaware that Magnox is separate from British Energy. We have just floated British Energy, not Magnox, on the stock exchange. The Government continue to own Magnox, and it is therefore a competitor of British Energy.
Mr Timothy Eggar: Yes, have a go.
Mr Timothy Eggar: I shall go through the whole chronology, and the hon. Gentleman will find out the true position. I am treating this issue with the seriousness that it deserves, because the hon. Gentleman has been making a serious accusation outside the House rather than from the Dispatch Box. The British Energy prospectus sets out clearly and exhaustively the range of issues that prospective investors...
Mr Timothy Eggar: I promise the hon. Gentleman that I will give way to him, but will he first listen to my statement? I am trying to put clearly on the record what actually happened. It will benefit the House if I am free to do that. While carrying out planned testing of reheater pipes during the Hinkley Point B statutory outage—which was scheduled to last for two months from 7 June—the existence of a...
Mr Timothy Eggar: If my hon. Friend will forgive me, I shall do so in a moment. The press release noted that a crack in a weld had been discovered at Hinkley; that the weld would be cut out and replaced; and that steam-pipe weld inspections would be undertaken on the remaining reactors at Hinkley Point and Hunterston in due course. Accordingly, the pipe was cut out on 8 July and, on the morning of 9 July, the...
