The hon. Gentleman knows from experience, when this country has been through bad times, how devastating unemployment can be for communities, when people are looking for jobs and cannot find them. Today, if people are looking for jobs in our workforce, the opportunities are a whole lot better than they were back in 2010, even after the impact of a pandemic, and we should be pleased about that. Of course it is not a reason for complacency; of course we still face many economic challenges, but it is a major step forward for this country that we are not in the place that I thought we would end up in after a devastating pandemic, going back to those days of 2.5 million and 3 million unemployed. We do not have that right now, and that, I think, is because Ministers took the right decisions at the right time. I am proud that they did that.
So what do we do now? The first thing I would do is exactly the opposite of what the Labour party wanted us to do before Christmas: I want to lift the restrictions on our economy now. I did not think that we should have them, even to the degree that we have them now. I did not support them, but I think the bold decisions that the Government took before Christmas have been proved right. Many businesses are closed and unable to function in Scotland—a country that saw a lot of its population come to England for new year’s eve to enjoy Hogmanay here, because the Scottish Government put in place restrictions that I do not think were necessary. Now we are in a position in which the right decisions were taken and we have an opportunity to lift restrictions further, so that those businesses in our city centres that are suffering because of people working from home can get back into better shape again. So I say to the Labour party, which has argued for tighter restrictions and against what this Government have done, that now is the moment for the party—and the whole House—to support the removal of our restrictions.
The last point that I want to make is about the energy issue. We have heard a lot today about energy as it affects households. The impact of what is happening globally at the moment will be devastating for households across Europe. However, we also need a smart strategy for energy to support businesses well, and we will not get there if we step away from the resources that we have.
I support the move to net zero and the expansion of renewables, but I also support the continued exploitation of the gas reserves we have in the North sea. Simply to step away now and say, “Because we are talking net zero in 2050, in 2022 we should exploit none of them”, is nonsense, in my view. We need that gas, we need the resources for the United Kingdom and we need a smarter strategy than that of those who are simply arguing that we should stop all fossil fuel exploration right now. That is the wrong thing to do and it must not happen.
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