Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Hitchin & Harpenden has today raised her concerns over Peter Lilley’s oil interests with the Shadow DECC team.
Rachel Burgin said “while it is legal for Peter Lilley MP to have these directorships and shareholdings provided they appear in the Register of Members Interests, my concern is that the policymaking process operates effectively and in the national interest. There are countless opportunities to radically reform our Energy market with Green Technology in a way that could decrease rather than increase household bills. I asked for reassurances that a future Labour Government wouldn’t allow the sort of vested interests illustrated by Peter Lilley’s entry in the Register to stand in the way of us making the most of these opportunities.”
Shadow DECC Minister, Jonathan Reynolds said:
“The UK could benefit enormously from the Green Economy. It is already important but under a Labour Government, it would grow even more significant with the creation of one million “green jobs”. We need politicians who will champion this and not allow their financial interests to stand in the way of us meeting our Climate Change objectives. Labour is fully committed to this goal”.
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Rachel Burgin, PPC for Hitchin & Harpenden tasked with dislodging leading Climate Change sceptic, Peter Lilley MP.
I have a little list.
Well, I wish it was little. The problem is: it’s actually quite big. It’s the entry in the Register of Members’ Interests for Peter Lilley MP.
Here goes:
11 monthly payments in the sum of £2,083 from IDOX Plc for whom he serves as a non-executive director.
4 quarterly payments in the sum of £11,750 from Tethys Petroleum, a Kazakhstani Oil and Gas Exploration Company registered in the Cayman Islands.
Peter Lilley’s shareholdings in Tethys Petroleum are also registered.
Annual remuneration in the sum of £30,000 “to attend 2 or 3 meetings each year, at least one in China and to respond to requests for advice”. This is from asset management company, Yimei Capital, based in Shanghai.
Nice work if you can get it!
British Co-Chairman of the Uzbek British Trade and Industrial Council.
Unpaid Director of a Guernsey based subsidiary of an Indian company, Facor Energy Ltd.
Conference, I’ve knocked on 10s of 1,000s of doors in my time – thousands of them in the Hitchin & Harpenden constituency – and I’ve lost count of the number of people who tell me “you politicians: you’re all in it for yourselves” and quite frankly when I look at this list, I don’t blame them. In many respects this list beautifully illustrates much of what is wrong with British politics. Power, wealth and opportunity in the hands of the few not the many; policy influenced by lobbying not by national interests.
Conference, the opportunities for radical reform of our Energy market are endless. Houses can now be built that don’t even need Energy bills; new ways of generating renewable energy are being developed all the time and Community Energy Cooperatives offer local people the opportunity to own their own Energy supply. These opportunities expose the lie that so called “green crap” is responsible for rising energy costs. But vested interests will always seek to stand in the way of us fully exploiting these opportunities and Peter Lilley’s Register of Members’ Interests exposes the problem.
Those trapped in fuel poverty cannot afford to wine and dine Energy Ministers; elderly people struggling to keep their house warm cannot hire a former Minister as a non-Executive Director and ordinary working class people who work in the Energy Industry cannot pay MPs £30,000 a year to attend three meetings.
I believe it’s the job of all Labour politicians to speak up for those who CANNOT speak for themselves. Only then can power, wealth and opportunity be in the hands of the many not the few. “POWER TO THE PEOPLE” must be our clarion call – and it must start with our Energy supply.