(Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
(Con): Does my right hon. Friend agree that, in addition to
the excellent solution proposed by my hon. Friend the Member for
Darlington (), now is the time for the
Government to exploit this country’s technological lead, and
build a fleet of small modular nuclear reactors as part of our
Great British Nuclear programme? While I am at it, is it not time
that the Labour party apologised for 13 years of bone-headed
hostility to any new nuclear power in this country?
The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial
Strategy (): I think it is fitting
if I start with the apology, because I inadvertently airbrushed
my right hon. Friend out of a picture on Twitter last week. I
think my team were confused: I simply told the team that he
needed hair brushing, not airbrushing. No one did more to
progress space than my right hon. Friend as Prime Minister, and
although the space launch was not successful last week, I know it
is the start of a very important new sector for this country.
On my right hon. Friend’s point about small modular reactors, he
is absolutely right. We will be announcing the creation of Great
British Nuclear very shortly, and small modular
reactors—Rolls-Royce and the others—will play an
amazingly important part in this nuclear mix, which will get us
back up to 25% of our power being from nuclear.
