My interview with @mattforde, first released on 25 November, talking mainly about my #spinalstroke#spinalcordinjury and recovery earlier this year, and a little bit of what’s been happening since
https://t.co/D7mQQniPzU
Whatever anyone thinks (or, more likely, ‘believes’) about #Brexit, and however anyone voted in the 2016 referendum, there is NO version of this ‘EU Reset’ in which @UKLabour don’t ’give away the farm’, and in which the EU won’t take full advantage and offer us a ‘deal’ that’s worse than what we have now or that we ever had in the past.
Just look at how quickly and easily Starmer capitulated on allowing TWELVE more years of free EU fishing access to our waters (while every other neighbouring independent coastal state has to negotiate ANNUALLY with us), while getting NOTHING in return.
Labour has repeatedly broken its promises to farmers; despite a 25-year roadmap, their EU negotiations will undermine reality.
I expressed this real concern with Labour earlier this week 👇
Delighted for, and proud of, my friend @Jim_A_Adams, who swore in and gave his maiden speech today, moving the @ScotTories amendment to a @scotgov motion.
A pleasure to make my first contribution as the Member for Aberdeen South in a Westminster Hall debate on oil and gas.
Drilling our own oil and gas is better for our jobs, our economy, our security and the environment than relying on imports. Why don't Labour understand this?
A council is forcing homeowners to rip out their air con, saying they should ‘open a window’ instead.
Why? Because of their Soviet ‘cooling hierarchy’ policy.
This is mad.
We have to end the de facto air con bans in Britain and Make Britain Cool Again!
Last night we voted against Ed Miliband’s new Net Zero target.
Why? Watch this.
Not a single Labour MP could say what it will mean for the cost of food or energy for our constituents - or for British jobs and industry.
They’re going to spend hundreds of billions of pounds of YOUR money and they didn’t even seem to care what it will mean for you.
Parliament should be better than this.
The country is not being governed and Labour say there won't be a Prime Minister till September.
Keir Starmer is off on a farewell tour and Andy Burnham wants a summer holiday. Neither is thinking about our national security.
We need to cut welfare and fund our military.
Reform would not have won Makerfield even if every other party on the Right stood down.
Meanwhile, in Aberdeen, the Conservatives took half the votes despite Reform being on the ballot paper.
We united the city behind a genuine offer.
Had I done a deal, our emphatic victory in Aberdeen would have been diminished. People would have sneered that we only won because Reform stepped aside. A win 'helped' by Reform would have been no win at all.
That’s why I am not doing any deals. If you want the Right -Vote Conservative
This is a significant result, and I want to start by congratulating @DLumsden_MSP on becoming the new Member of Parliament for Aberdeen South and the newest Conservative MP!
Makerfield was about one man’s job.
Aberdeen South was about thousands of jobs in oil and gas across our country and the future of an entire city.
Yesterday, the people of Aberdeen sent a message on behalf of the whole country. Energy security is national security. They know it is common sense to use our own oil and gas rather than importing it from overseas. They know it is madness to make ourselves poorer, weaker and more dependent at a time when even the government’s own intelligence says we are under threat. The first duty of any government is to keep its people safe. The Conservative Party will always put Britain’s security first.
What makes this result particularly significant is that many people who voted Conservative today have never voted Conservative before. I want to thank every one of them.
Many will have voted for us because they care deeply about Aberdeen and its future. Many will have voted for us because they are sick of the SNP’s shenanigans. Others because they are worried about what Labour’s policies mean for their jobs and livelihoods. Many voted for us because they wanted a strong local champion.
Douglas is that champion. He has lived in Aberdeen all his life. He spent two decades working in the oil and gas industry. He knows this city, he knows its people, and throughout this campaign he brought energy, optimism and a genuine belief in Aberdeen’s future. Wherever he went, he had a smile on his face and a positive message about what this great city can achieve.
The Conservative Party is working to earn the trust of the country again. I am grateful and humbled that Aberdeen looked at the choice before them and decided that the Conservative Party was the party that would fight for families, workers and business.
Thank you, Aberdeen. I will never stop fighting for you. Douglas will never stop fighting for you.
The Conservative Party will keep fighting for common sense, a stronger economy and a stronger country.
Another Scottish result worth waiting up for!!
Congratulations to @DLumsden_MSP (soon to become ‘MP’) on not just gaining #AberdeenSouth from the SNP but with a stonking majority and 50% of the vote!
Congratulations also to @James_A_Adams who will now be a NE 🏴 MSP.
Britain is in an Energy Emergency.
But the Government is FAILING TO ACT. They have no plan, no idea what to do, and they’re leaving us exposed.
So today we’re launching The LFG Emergency Energy Bill to SAVE OUR INDUSTRIES and GET BILLS DOWN
Here’s how it would get bills down IMMEDIATELY:
1️⃣ SCRAP all levies on energy bills. These stealth taxes on the British people are unnecessarily hiking up their bills by hundreds of pounds.
2️⃣ REOPEN THE NORTH SEA, and directly deploy the tax revenue generated to GET BILLS DOWN.
3️⃣ Stop new CfD contracts and launch an investigation into the system that signed them off. Last year, billpayers paid £1.5 billion for big renewable corporations to THROW ENERGY AWAY. By 2030, it’ll be £8 billion. The existing settlement is a national scandal.
4️⃣ Scrap Clean Power 2030 targets. These needless constraints have pushed civil servants to procure wind at any cost – and at huge expense to the British people.
5️⃣ DITCH the duties of energy regulators, NESO and Ofgem, towards Net Zero goals, so their only focus is to MINIMISE ENERGY COSTS, subject to security of supply.
6️⃣ Hold auctions for connecting to the grid, and directly deploy the revenue generated to GET BILLS DOWN
Our Emergency Energy Bill has cross-party support. It is ready to PASS IMMEDIATELY. It does what governments for the past 20 years didn’t – it takes RADICAL ACTION to SAVE OUR INDUSTRIES and GET BILLS DOWN.
There’s no excuse. Last week, the US suspended access to some of the world’s leading frontier AI models. Britain is vulnerable - and our energy prices are strangling our national security. We cannot afford to be at the mercy of other countries or events beyond our control any longer.
The Government needs to GET BILLS DOWN NOW or explain why they’re still letting this emergency destroy our future.
Force Westminster to ACT. Send our Bill to your local MP and sign our letter to the Prime Minister and Ed Miliband. GET BILLS DOWN, NOW!
@ClaireCoutinho, Shadow Energy Secretary and Conservative MP, said:
"Britain will miss out on the growth that comes alongside AI and the industries of the future unless we prioritise cheap electricity now. The legislative straitjackets that we have imposed on ourselves in the name of Net Zero are pushing up energy prices, sucking growth out of our economy and making us a warning, not an example, to the rest of the world.
We need to take taxes and levies off bills, get Britain drilling in the North Sea, and rewire the entire system to prioritise one thing above all else: cheap, reliable, abundant energy."
https://t.co/38Fi9CXfks
🚨 Aberdeen has a very important choice.
🔵 Back oil and gas jobs with @DLumsden_MSP and the @ScotTories.
🟡 Or let the SNP win again.
💪 Brilliant to join the whole team out on the doors!
🗳️ Vote Douglas Lumsden on Thursday.
Britain is in an Energy Emergency.
But the Government is FAILING TO ACT. They have no plan, no idea what to do, and they’re leaving us exposed.
So today we’re launching The LFG Emergency Energy Bill to SAVE OUR INDUSTRIES and GET BILLS DOWN
Here’s how it would get bills down IMMEDIATELY:
1️⃣ SCRAP all levies on energy bills. These stealth taxes on the British people are unnecessarily hiking up their bills by hundreds of pounds.
2️⃣ REOPEN THE NORTH SEA, and directly deploy the tax revenue generated to GET BILLS DOWN.
3️⃣ Stop new CfD contracts and launch an investigation into the system that signed them off. Last year, billpayers paid £1.5 billion for big renewable corporations to THROW ENERGY AWAY. By 2030, it’ll be £8 billion. The existing settlement is a national scandal.
4️⃣ Scrap Clean Power 2030 targets. These needless constraints have pushed civil servants to procure wind at any cost – and at huge expense to the British people.
5️⃣ DITCH the duties of energy regulators, NESO and Ofgem, towards Net Zero goals, so their only focus is to MINIMISE ENERGY COSTS, subject to security of supply.
6️⃣ Hold auctions for connecting to the grid, and directly deploy the revenue generated to GET BILLS DOWN
Our Emergency Energy Bill has cross-party support. It is ready to PASS IMMEDIATELY. It does what governments for the past 20 years didn’t – it takes RADICAL ACTION to SAVE OUR INDUSTRIES and GET BILLS DOWN.
There’s no excuse. Last week, the US suspended access to some of the world’s leading frontier AI models. Britain is vulnerable - and our energy prices are strangling our national security. We cannot afford to be at the mercy of other countries or events beyond our control any longer.
The Government needs to GET BILLS DOWN NOW or explain why they’re still letting this emergency destroy our future.
Force Westminster to ACT. Send our Bill to your local MP and sign our letter to the Prime Minister and Ed Miliband. GET BILLS DOWN, NOW!
Keir Starmer and I disagree on many things, but good people across the political spectrum will welcome today’s verdicts, condemn these appalling attacks which seem to have been sponsored by Russia, and wish the PM and his family well.
Whatever our political differences, no one should face intimidation, threats or attacks because they hold public office.
Democracy is settled at the ballot box, not through fear or violence and definitely not through foreign interference from hostile countries.