---

Energy Security

Will the hon. Lady allow me to speak for a little longer? We are beginning to develop an important consensus with the Opposition party on the importance of new nuclear as part of the UK's energy mix. I very much welcome that, and I also welcome the distance travelled by the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton, although even now a nuclear investor could be forgiven for not being entirely clear about his party's view on some of these matters. Not that far into the past, I and many others heard the Leader of the Opposition say that his"““policy, green energy first, nuclear as a last resort, is absolutely right.””" The hon. Member for Rutland and Melton very shortly afterwards popped up and said, in an attempt to correct his leader, that it was not a last resort, but just ““two words”” in a document that ““we binned months ago””. The Conservative party's green supremo, Mr. Zac Goldsmith, upon whose shoulders the Tory detoxification process largely resides, then described nuclear power as a total waste of money and stated that"““if the party said nuclear power was good, I'd fight like hell against that.””" No wonder, then, that recently Baroness Warsi—a member of the shadow Cabinet, no less—in response to a question from Andrew Neil about whether the Tory nuclear policy was unfathomable, replied simply, ““um, it is.”” The planning reform Bill debated in the House last week is seen by every potential nuclear investor as critical, and we cannot afford a rerun of the six-year Sizewell B inquiry. Those who opposed the Bill—