It’s 2pm and, having safely made it through the morning of the Social Liberal Forum conference, I’m waiting with some other bloggers in part of the rabbit warren that is City University for Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne. The interview was meant to start at 1.30pm, but working on a combination of Lib Dem time and Ministerial time Huhne, who arrives 5 minutes later, is practically early!
When he does arrive, what is most apparent about Huhne is just quite how immersed in his portfolio he is. No more having a tokenistic Climate Change Secretary, Huhne seems intent on making the green agenda run through government. There is also seemingly nothing in his wide portfolio that Huhne doesn’t have substantive knowledge of, perhaps not a surprise having looked at the issues for many years.
I start by asking him why, given his student involvement with the Labour Party and his self-definition as a social-liberal during the first leadership contest, it was he who was the first person to formally advocate full coalition with the Conservatives. He answers that had only a confidence and supply agreement with either party been reached, it would have showed a lack of trust between the parties, and assumed a general election would be held soon. Huhne says that this would have led a run on British bonds and sterling from the markets, with huge economic consequences. Furthermore, he points out that there is “no evidence in the world” that supply and confidence could have delivered the tough decisions that needed to be made, whereas there is evidence that coalition could.
When asked if anything would have been different had he beaten Nick Clegg to the leadership, he laughs and says he isn’t sure, and has been to busy to worry about. Huhne believes that the central strategy pursued by the party is correct, and the coalition agreement is good, particularly given the Liberal Democrats had not be in government for a long time. Again this hardly comes as a surprise, Huhne having been a key figure in developing both.
Huhne was also asked what his biggest success so far as a minister is. He replied that “it’s not for me to say,” but went on to lists some fairly hefty achievements by his department, including the passing of the 4th Carbon Budget, and the Cancun Agreement (whose negotiations meant he didn’t have to vote for the tuition fees rise). In fact, the list of the achievements is so great it prompted me to ask why we aren’t hearing more about it. Given the clear Lib Dem influence in this area of government policy, you might assume the party would do a lot of shouting about it. Apparently “negative stories are more interesting to journalists,” and according to his Special Advisor “we do try”. This, in all departments, really is the key problem that the Liberal Democrats need to sort out in year 2.
On the controversial issue of Trident renewal, Huhne said that the key point is that no “big money” decision will be made until after the 2015 general election, again due to the Liberal Democrats.
Overall it was very interesting half an hour with the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. He seemed very relaxed and keen to engage, despite the ridiculous media circus of the last few weeks. This really is one of the areas of government in which the Liberal Democrats can have huge influence, and it seems that has already been achieved in the first year. It would just be nice to know about it a bit more.
You can here my exchange with Chris Huhe here:
June 20, 2011 at 10:13 pm