Latest news with #JennyRiddell-Carpenter
BBC News
17-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Ex-MP Therese Coffey on losing Suffolk seat and mother's death
Baroness Coffey has spoken of the trauma of losing her Commons seat in July's general election and just hours later finding out her mother had only a month to live. The former Conservative MP for Suffolk Coastal had held her seat since 2010 and lost it to Labour's Jenny Riddell-Carpenter in the 2024 vote that saw her party lose said after some "time out" she was now ready to apply her "political antennae" to her new role in the House of Lords. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch put Coffey forward for a life peerage at the end of last year and she took her seat in the Lords in January. The baroness says Suffolk feel like "home" and that some people were "surprised" when she decided to stay in the county after losing her seat and then her mother. "My mother got ill during the election campaign and went into hospital. I visited every day... and then, when I went to tell her I had lost, within an hour we had the diagnosis that she would pass away within a month. So it was quite a traumatic time in that regard," she said. She added not being an MP anymore meant she was able to spend those last few weeks with her mother, which was a "privilege". Applying 'peer pressure' There has had to be adjustments for her in her new role in Parliament's upper house."I would say about 90% of the time is spent scrutinising legislation and it is much harder to scrutinise the government. So I have had come to that understanding," she said. Baroness Coffey also wants to use her position to deal with some "unfinished business" from her time as an MP in said she was considering tabling an amendment to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill due before the Lords shortly and was looking forward to using some of her experiences in Suffolk and as a minister in order to apply some of what she punningly calls "peer pressure".She said wanted to prevent buildings designated as community assets being demolished, and cited the loss of the sports hall and Angel Theatre in Rendlesham as motivations. Therese Coffey spent nine years as a minister, starting in the Whips' Office in 2014 , holding a number of cabinet roles and also a short, and not uncontroversial spell, as deputy prime minister to Liz being a minster, she said: "That is just constant pressure, which varies. I spent three years at Defra [Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) initially before going off to join the cabinet and running Work and Pensions during Covid. "So I think it's fair to say it is relentless and... I got ill several years ago. I was just run down. Because it was never ending."Baroness Coffey had a serious brain infection which put her in November 2023, she resigned from the government front bench. 'It is why I wear a scarf' During her time in government, as well as attracting political criticism, Coffey has also been portrayed in the media as someone who likes a few drinks and having a good time. A picture of her taken at a party smoking a cigar with a drink stain down the front of her top, looking intoxicated, is regularly republished. She said: "It was taken a Spectator summer party on a particularly hot day and I just knew then it was a bad photo. Funnily enough a lot of the national journalists seemed to think it was great and showed I was 'down'. "I knew it was a disaster. But I cannot do anything about it, so I don't worry about it. "It's the reason I started wearing scarves. To try and make sure that any future spills, as it were, which do happen from time to time to everybody, do not show. " Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
End 'whack-a-mole' energy projects strategy
An MP has called for an end to what she called a "whack-a-mole strategy" for energy projects in the East of England. Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, Labour MP for Suffolk Coastal, said a "void of no leadership" meant major infrastructure projects on Suffolk's coast were not coordinated, leading to "applications being drawn up without community interests at their heart". The Sizewell C nuclear power station, infrastructure to support offshore wind farms and National Grid projects are all planned for the county's coast. A government spokesperson said it was "reforming our planning system to ensure an effective, strategic approach for new energy projects". Speaking on BBC Radio Suffolk, Riddell-Carpenter said: "Thirty per cent of the UK's energy is due to be created or transported through Suffolk's coastline and that's a significant amount of energy infrastructure that's either planned, being constructed now or intended to come here." Both Sizewell C and ScottishPower Renewables' offshore windfarms were given approval in 2022, when the Conservatives were in power. "In creating that void of no leadership, organisations stepped in and they could just carve it up, pop this here, pop that there and it was a whack-a-mole strategy that was just left up to the energy developers to pursue and sustain," she said. "In no way is that good enough; in no way is that sufficient." She gave the example of the Nautilus project, plans for an under sea cable between Belgium and the UK. Suffolk's coast was being considered by National Grid as a location for landfall for the cable, but this has now moved to Kent. Riddell-Carpenter said: "Suddenly it was off the cards - it left just as suddenly as it came - but this is not how policy should be developed or conceived." She said she was pulling together a Suffolk Coastal Energy task force, including parish councillors, community leaders and representatives from the energy developers, to better co-ordinate plans. However, energy firms dispute the alleged lack of coordination. A spokesperson for National Grid said: "The application for our Sea Link project has not yet been submitted. "We have been consulting local communities in East Suffolk for the last three years, including local political representatives, all with the aim of identifying ways to keep disruption from construction to a minimum. "We are already coordinating with the other projects in the area, and attend community-facing meetings like the Sizewell C Community Forum - which the local MP is invited to." Julia Pyke, joint managing director of Sizewell C, said: "Low-carbon energy projects offer this area a huge opportunity for jobs, for investment, and for growth. "But projects do need to talk to each other; we do need to set an example of how infrastructure can be done better in this region. "We're working very closely with local projects and councils, to share intelligence and coordinate so that we can reduce impacts on local people." A spokesperson for ScottishPower Renewables said it prided itself on being "a responsible developer" and "considerate constructor". "Our East Anglia offshore windfarm projects, which are all fully consented, are multi-billion pound investment projects," they said. "Our focus is always on minimising impact – for example, installing all the cable route ducting for one windfarm during the construction of another – while maximising benefits for our communities." A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: "Securing Britain's clean energy future requires improving infrastructure in a cost-effective way to get renewable electricity on the grid and protect billpayers from unstable fossil fuel markets. "We are reforming our planning system to ensure there is an effective, strategic approach for new energy projects. "Communities will continue to have a voice on developments in their area." Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. 'Nothing prepared us for Sizewell C devastation' Two offshore windfarms given planning permission Major energy project moves from Suffolk to Kent Campaigners continue to fight new substation plans Department for Energy Security and Net Zero ScottishPower Renewables National Grid - Lion Link National Grid - Sea Link Sizewell C
BBC News
15-02-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Suffolk Coastal MP wants end to 'whack-a-mole' energy strategy
An MP has called for an end to what she called a "whack-a-mole strategy" for energy projects in the East of England. Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, Labour MP for Suffolk Coastal, said a "void of no leadership" meant major infrastructure projects on Suffolk's coast were not coordinated, leading to "applications being drawn up without community interests at their heart". The Sizewell C nuclear power station, infrastructure to support offshore wind farms and National Grid projects are all planned for the county's coast. A government spokesperson said it was "reforming our planning system to ensure an effective, strategic approach for new energy projects". Speaking on BBC Radio Suffolk, Riddell-Carpenter said: "Thirty per cent of the UK's energy is due to be created or transported through Suffolk's coastline and that's a significant amount of energy infrastructure that's either planned, being constructed now or intended to come here." Both Sizewell C and ScottishPower Renewables' offshore windfarms were given approval in 2022, when the Conservatives were in power."In creating that void of no leadership, organisations stepped in and they could just carve it up, pop this here, pop that there and it was a whack-a-mole strategy that was just left up to the energy developers to pursue and sustain," she said."In no way is that good enough; in no way is that sufficient."She gave the example of the Nautilus project, plans for an under sea cable between Belgium and the coast was being considered by National Grid as a location for landfall for the cable, but this has now moved to said: "Suddenly it was off the cards - it left just as suddenly as it came - but this is not how policy should be developed or conceived." She said she was pulling together a Suffolk Coastal Energy task force, including parish councillors, community leaders and representatives from the energy developers, to better co-ordinate energy firms dispute the alleged lack of coordination.A spokesperson for National Grid said: "The application for our Sea Link project has not yet been submitted."We have been consulting local communities in East Suffolk for the last three years, including local political representatives, all with the aim of identifying ways to keep disruption from construction to a minimum."We are already coordinating with the other projects in the area, and attend community-facing meetings like the Sizewell C Community Forum - which the local MP is invited to." Julia Pyke, joint managing director of Sizewell C, said: "Low-carbon energy projects offer this area a huge opportunity for jobs, for investment, and for growth."But projects do need to talk to each other; we do need to set an example of how infrastructure can be done better in this region. "We're working very closely with local projects and councils, to share intelligence and coordinate so that we can reduce impacts on local people."A spokesperson for ScottishPower Renewables said it prided itself on being "a responsible developer" and "considerate constructor"."Our East Anglia offshore windfarm projects, which are all fully consented, are multi-billion pound investment projects," they said."Our focus is always on minimising impact – for example, installing all the cable route ducting for one windfarm during the construction of another – while maximising benefits for our communities." A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: "Securing Britain's clean energy future requires improving infrastructure in a cost-effective way to get renewable electricity on the grid and protect billpayers from unstable fossil fuel markets."We are reforming our planning system to ensure there is an effective, strategic approach for new energy projects."Communities will continue to have a voice on developments in their area." Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
