The Government has a mission to power-up the future — and we won’t make you pay for it like Labour
IMAGINE a world with an unlimited supply of clean energy, creating no pollution.
Our lights, heating, TVs, dishwashers, washing machines, ovens and stoves all fuelled cheaply and with no cost to the environment.
This future is not just science fiction — it’s within our grasp if we can unlock the potential of fusion power.
The Government is investing more than £700million to help make the UK a global hub for fusion — electricity produced from the heat of nuclear reactions.
This week, I went to see our world-leading scientists hard at work on this at the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
Here in Britain we can be proud of the fact that we are leading the way in creating highly skilled, highly paid jobs of the future.
Unlocking nuclear fusion is just one of the many parts of our plan to meet our energy needs in the decades to come, alongside all the technologies we’ve already harnessed.
Holding us to ransom
Securing energy security for families up and down this country remains one of the most crucial responsibilities for any government — because it underpins our resilience and prosperity as a nation.
It fuels our country’s success — growing the economy, creating jobs and protecting people’s ability to live their lives, as they choose, without fear.
Moving to cleaner, home-grown forms of energy — such as nuclear, wind and solar — and ending our reliance on importing foreign fossil fuels we will stop tyrants like Russia’s Vladimir Putin holding us to ransom.
Investing in new green technology will also help us grow the economy, create quality jobs and drive down the cost of bills for families and businesses.
And it will help to secure that deep and lasting Conservative principle that we must protect what we cherish for our children and their children.
There is no greater legacy we can leave to future generations than protecting our natural environment and ensuring access to cheap, clean energy.
Our global leadership on climate finance and clean technology means we can invest in the technology of the future, like fusion.
This gives us a huge influence on the world stage.
Because we have the skills and infra-structure here in Britain, we can help solve this global challenge and reduce global emissions.
In my first speech as a Member of Parliament, I promised to champion our environment, and I make the same promise now.
We can be proud of the global leadership we have displayed so far in adapting — making more progress than any similar country.
In 2010, when Labour left office, just seven per cent of our electricity was generated by renewable energy.
At the start of this year, it was nearly 50 per cent.
This Conservative government has built the world’s four largest operational offshore wind farms.
We are reviving nuclear power, reversing years of neglect and short-termism under Labour.
All of this is bolstering our energy security for the future, but it is also boosting our economy now.
In 2021, there were nearly a quarter of a million people working in low-carbon jobs across the country, generating a turnover of more than £50billion a year.
It is jobs like these that have led to us cutting out emissions.
But, Sun on Sunday readers, it is important that I am honest with you.
Despite the huge progress this Government has made, we in the UK only account for one per cent of global emissions.
Put simply, we can’t do this alone, and hard-working families should not be forced to change their lives or have extra financial burdens put on them.
That’s what Labour don’t understand though — you can’t punish people to reach net zero — you have to take people with you.
It’s no good just saying you’ll shut down the British oil and gas industry, killing tens of thousands of jobs across the country and making us all poorer.
Unfortunately Labour, who are backed to the hilt by the same people who back disruptive protest groups such as Just Stop Oil, don’t understand that.
Unlike Sir Keir Starmer, who always takes the easy way out, I understand that we cannot achieve anything if it’s done just by forcing people to stop doing the things they want to do, like going abroad on holiday.
To do this would be unconservative and it is against everything I stand for.
Wrong-headed Ulez tax
Most importantly, it won’t work.
That’s the difference between us and the Labour Party.
We could achieve Labour’s 2030 net zero target — a target no country in the world has adopted — but it would send our businesses abroad and leave people literally in the dark.
The NHS would seize up and the economy would be destroyed.
They pursued a wrong-headed Ulez expansion tax, hitting the worst off hardest.
Their plans for £28billion of borrowing will mean higher taxes, higher inflation and higher prices for households.
This is a fight that will define the decades ahead, and we are in it for the long haul.
If you can’t find policies that take people with you, you leave the door open to extremists.
We’ve seen the reaction across Europe, where extremist parties are seizing on clunky policies that hit the poorest hardest while forcing business away.
Our duty as Conservatives is to put forward pragmatic policies that take people with us.
That is what I will do in my new job, and that is what this Prime Minister will deliver.