In his latest column, High Peak MP Robert Largan gives his reaction to Liz Truss's election as Prime Minister and talks about concerns over energy bills.

Liz Truss has been elected as Britain’s third female Conservative Prime Minister.

She takes office at a precarious moment for both the country and the world. We face a whole series of looming crises that require urgent action. The whole country needs her to succeed.

Truss has a breadth of experience in Government having secured ground-breaking free trade agreements with our partners across the world and helping lead the UK’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine – uniting a global coalition against Putin’s regime and introducing a range of crippling sanctions.

No Prime Minister since the Second World War has taken office in such difficult circumstances. The new Prime Minister faces war in Europe, an energy market in turmoil, rising inflation, and public services still recovering from a global pandemic.

This summer, I have spent a lot of time knocking on doors and listening to local residents. Understandably, the vast majority of people I have spoken to have been deeply concerned about rising energy bills.

Rising long-term demand in China, disruption to global supply chains, and the Russian invasion in Ukraine have put extraordinary pressure on the global energy market, with energy bills due to rise to simply unaffordable levels.

Since January, I have consistently called on the Government to provide more support for households and businesses, repeatedly raising the issue in Parliament and in meetings with the highest levels of Government.

A very large part of this is being caused by Putin’s war. We need to remain firm in our resolve, supporting Ukraine. But we also need to approach this energy crisis as if we were on a war-footing too, using extraordinary emergency measures to protect people.

The Government has already put forward a range of measures to mitigate these price rises, with one-third of households set to receive £1,200 each. But this is clearly not enough.

I strongly believe Mrs Truss needs to take immediate radical action to help people and businesses through this winter and buy us time to scale up our own energy production (both renewable and nuclear) to ensure our long-term energy security.

Tough choices lie ahead. The Prime Minister must be honest with the public about this and be prepared to take extraordinary emergency measures to protect people. Now is the time for practical pragmatism. Not ideological purity.

Whatever happens, I will continue to take an independent-minded approach and keep standing up for the High Peak!

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