The by-election bandwagon rolls again. The writ for Kingswood has been moved on Wednesday and another £200,000 or so will be spent electing an MP who is likely to represent this corner of South Gloucestershire for no more than nine months. With boundary changes wiping the constituency off the electoral map, the saga is a baffling waste of time for its residents who are (rightly) wondering why they are heading to the polls.
Step forward Chris Skidmore, who surprisingly won the seat in 2010 and has increased its majority in each subsequent election. He used it as a launchpad for a ministerial career spanning the Cabinet Office and the Departments for Health and Education.
He was once a core member of the Free Enterprise Group of MPs, along with then-ministers Kwasi Kwarteng, Dominic Raab, Priti Patel and Liz Truss, who banged the drum for liberal economics.
Yet along the way Skidmore has adopted an almost zealotry attitude towards net zero that prompted him to step away from politics earlier than planned. He has flounced off from Parliament, proclaiming himself disgusted with the Government’s net-zero reset. He is instead devoting himself to some hitherto unclear role on delivering the energy transition to net-zero emissions by 2050.
Some have critiqued Skidmore for wasting taxpayers’ money and benefiting himself. After exiting ministerial life, he has taken up external policy and green advisory roles that have earnt him far more than his MP’s salary. Clearly, he was casting towards a life beyond politics, but it is somewhat self-indulgent to jettison Parliament at this exact moment. The palpable anger among his former colleagues has been exacerbated by his comments that green priorities override loyalty to his party of almost three decades.
But more importantly, Skidmore is deeply wrongheaded on the proclaimed net-zero substance. In his resignation letter, he cited new legislation that “clearly promotes” the production of new oil and gas as the factor behind his exit – warning of “stranded assets” in the future as the journey away from fossil fuels speeds up.
Is this legislation partly about politics? Very possibly, but to pretend that it’s a serious shift toward fossil fuels is misguided. He knows well that the UK will be reliant on oil and gas for many years to keep the lights on.
The question is not whether we need it or not, but where it comes from. The UK is one of the most gas-dependent countries in Europe, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent prices spiralling and threatened shortages in countries heavily reliant on Putin’s exports.
As the continent moved away from the Kremlin’s supplies, Britain acted as a bridge for growing US liquefied natural gas exports. That is not a long-term solution, as this supply is far more carbon-intensive than domestically produced gas. So at least in the short term, the UK needs North Sea oil and gas.
Renewables and nuclear are the long-term answer to the UK’s energy security challenge. The former provided a record 43 per cent of our electricity last year, up from just 7 per cent in 2010. Four of the world’s largest offshore wind farms are off these isles. Thanks to the renewable ramp-up, we are using the lowest amount of fossil fuels to generate electricity since 1957, and will stop using coal to power homes this year.
The announcement this week to pursue another large-scale power station – along with Sizewell C in Suffolk and a third at Hinkley Point in Somerset – promises to end Britain’s nuclear malaise. Plans to start producing reactor fuel in the UK, at a cost of £300m, will further strengthen our energy security against geopolitical turbulence.
But until we build these new, low-carbon energy sources, oil and gas will remain. No one is questioning that new fossil fuel licences are a short-term solution: North Sea gas production has already dropped by two-thirds since its peak in 2000. And even with these new licensing rounds, it is on course to drop by another 95 per cent by 2050, including a sharp drop by the end of this decade. Keeping the sector going can also help develop and maintain skills for production of renewables.
Skidmore’s greatest charge, however, is that the UK has stepped back from its leadership on climate change – starting with Rishi Sunak’s autumnal decision to push back the more immediate targets for ending the sale of petrol and diesel cars.
Yet it was also the speech in which the Prime Minister pledged to deliver a net-zero grid, the foundations of a net-zero economy. If you want to interpret this in the most negative way, the vibes may have changed, but since 2010 Conservative-led governments have been the greenest administrations ever. As Onward’s polling showed, voters want ambition but also pragmatism in the green transition.
The data does not back up Skidmore’s j’accuse. The UK has an excellent story to tell on decarbonistion. As The Spectator’s data hub highlights, the UK has reduced its CO2 emissions faster than any G20 country with emissions down 52 per cent from their peak. The in-progress transition from coal and gas to renewables are to thank, but the move to nuclear and renewable comes next. Yet too few are interested in championing the good we have done.
Skidmore wrote in his resignation of the “global signal” being sent and that this perceived rolling back will make it more difficult in the future to persuade other nations to follow our path on net zero.
In his words, we have “lost” our climate leadership. He is right that the Conservatives have a solid record on renewables and net zero, but the problem is they have forgotten how to champion it. Oil and gas licensing is a footnote to the huge progress that has already been made and what is to come.
Sebastian Payne is director of the centre-right think-tank Onward
Chris Skidmore is deeply wrongheaded about the Tories’ climate record
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11.01.2024
The by-election bandwagon rolls again. The writ for Kingswood has been moved on Wednesday and another £200,000 or so will be spent electing an MP who is likely to represent this corner of South Gloucestershire for no more than nine months. With boundary changes wiping the constituency off the electoral map, the saga is a baffling waste of time for its residents who are (rightly) wondering why they are heading to the polls.
Step forward Chris Skidmore, who surprisingly won the seat in 2010 and has increased its majority in each subsequent election. He used it as a launchpad for a ministerial career spanning the Cabinet Office and the Departments for Health and Education.
He was once a core member of the Free Enterprise Group of MPs, along with then-ministers Kwasi Kwarteng, Dominic Raab, Priti Patel and Liz Truss, who banged the drum for liberal economics.
Yet along the way Skidmore has adopted an almost zealotry attitude towards net zero that prompted him to step away from politics earlier than planned. He has flounced off from Parliament, proclaiming himself disgusted with the Government’s net-zero reset. He is instead devoting himself to some hitherto unclear role on delivering the energy transition to net-zero emissions by 2050.
Some have critiqued Skidmore for wasting taxpayers’ money and benefiting himself. After exiting ministerial life, he has taken up external policy and green advisory roles that have earnt him........
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