The following statement regarding the Aquind Interconnector project is from Portsmouth North’s Penny Mordaunt MP.
Thank you to everyone who has been working to stop Aquind and I am sorry not to be with you today.
The Aquind project would be bad for our city and bad for our country.
There has been a lot of focus on energy supply recently, and we do need to increase supply over time, but this is not the way to do it. Nor has this plan been something that those who look after our critical national infrastructure have deemed to be a necessary or desirable solution. The scheme has come from nowhere, not in response to an ask from Government or demand from industry.
There are many reasons why this must not proceed but the most compelling , in addition to the disruption and environmental damage to our city, are the arguments from a national security and resilience perspective.
We need to be building reliability and resilience into our domestic supply. That means being less reliant on foreign imports. France has already been explicit in saying it intends to politicise energy supply and use it as part of future negotiations. They have openly stated that this will involve switching off supply. Why would we ever rely on such a scheme?
Instead ,we have some fantastic options at home, including some really exciting and world leading schemes here on our doorstep using pioneering tidal power and elsewhere new nuclear technology using small reactors. People who tell you this scheme is needed to power the UK into the future are plain wrong.
Finally ,I believe that as well as our resilience suffering by relying on this scheme our national security will too. France, notwithstanding its plans to play hardball on existing schemes, should recognise that Aquind is not in its national interest either.
The arguments are so compelling, and we must make them over and over again. If we win this fight .we will have done our city and our country service.
Aquind should know we will never give up and that we will do all in our power to stop them. They should take their bat home now.
Thank you for the important part you are playing in this and let’s keep up the fight.