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UK Government's Energy Policy

No. Let me correct the right hon. Gentleman. His memory deceives him. I said that I would take no part in the campaign and I did not. However, I also said that people had a right to know what my views were, and I let them know, but not under the umbrella of the no campaign. I had no involvement in any of the campaigners’ meetings. They held a public meeting in Usk, Monmouthshire, just before the referendum. I was asked to go along and speak and I declined on the basis that it was important to maintain neutrality. I do not have any sort of a guilty conscience about that. Let us return to energy, which, as I said before, should remain the prerogative of the UK Government. One way to ensure that is to allow the only part of the United Kingdom that does not yet have its own Parliament to have one. I refer of course to England. If we did that and we made it clear which parts of energy and other policies were to be devolved to the regional assemblies and which parts were not, we would underpin the Union in a way that supporters of the Assembly and people concerned about the Assembly could thoroughly support. All those in favour of the Union of the United Kingdom—I think most of us in this room are—could support the idea of an English Parliament to underpin that Union—we need to consider that.