Ed Miliband Visits Hartlepool Power Station

Labour's Shadow Energy Secretary tours nuclear facility on General Election campaign trail.

Transcript

00:00Okay, so we're here at Hartlepool Power Station with Jonathan Brash, the candidate for Hartlepool,

00:05and Ed Miliband. Ed, you've been having a look around the power station, what's that

00:09been like? It's an incredibly impressive site, and I

00:12think this power station is a great tribute to the people of Hartlepool, because you've

00:17got an incredibly committed workforce which is helping to power our country, and I've

00:22been talking to Jonathan about the prospects for both extending the life of the site, and

00:27also the prospects for new nuclear. Now, I don't want to make false promises, but if

00:31Labour gets into government, we will be talking to the industry. If Jonathan is the MP, he

00:37will be banging down my door, I'm sure, making the case for Hartlepool, and I was the Energy

00:42Secretary in 2009 who identified Hartlepool as one of nine potential sites for nuclear.

00:47What I know is that Hartlepool has an incredible future in clean energy, with Great British

00:54Energy, our new publicly owned energy company, I think Hartlepool can be a powerhouse for

01:00the clean energy revolution to bring good jobs, lower bills, and energy security for

01:04our country. And hasn't a lot of this work been done by

01:07the Conservatives, and by the Chief Executive Mayor Ben Houchen?

01:11Well look, the Conservatives haven't built and operated one new nuclear power station

01:16throughout their time in office. When I left office in 2009, we left Hartlepool as one

01:21of those sites, and nothing's really happened. The truth is that if we want a good future

01:26for clean energy, if we want lower bills, and if we want good jobs, we need to vote

01:31for Great British Energy and for Labour, because we've had 14 years of the Conservatives, I

01:36think people in the country want to see change, and that's what Labour will bring.

01:40Ian, Jonathan, can you just explain a bit more about what would Labour do for nuclear

01:46and green energy if it did come into power? Well let's just be clear, Hartlepool's nuclear

01:50power station represents a third of our economic footprint. The future for Hartlepool's economic

01:55prosperity is absolutely rooted right here in this power station. Ed's absolutely right,

01:59I will be banging on the door of the next Labour government for new investment in new

02:03nuclear. We've had 14 years, no new investment, no new nuclear here in Hartlepool, it's going

02:08to be different under a Labour government. I'll be championing for Hartlepool, I'll be

02:11fighting for Hartlepool every step of the way.