Flint and Eagle face Rudd and Truss on Energy and Environment

We’re interested in all aspects of sustainable government. Amber Rudd and Elizabeth Truss have taken the two portfolios we’re most interested in – energy and environment. With a single-party majority government, Opposition matters in drawing attention to poor legislation and holding government to account.

Caroline Flint holds the Shadow Energy & Climate Change portfolio. Flint has been Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Don Valley since 1997. She served in the Government as the Minister for Public Health from 2005 to 2007, the Minister for Employment from 2007 to 2008, the Minister for Housing and Planning in 2008, and finally as the Minister for Europe from 2008 to 2009, when she resigned citing disagreement with the leadership style of Gordon Brown.

In October 2010, she was elected to the Shadow Cabinet, and Ed Miliband appointed her Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. In 2011, she was moved to become Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and she holds that position following the 20115 general election.

A selection of Caroline Flint’s votes. (Source: theyworkforyou.com)

• Voted moderately for measures to prevent climate change
• Voted very strongly against selling England’s state owned forests
• Voted very strongly against reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the “bedroom tax”)
• Voted strongly against fewer MPs in the House of Commons
• Voted a mixture of for and against a more proportional system for electing MPs
• Voted moderately against a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU
• Voted very strongly against raising England’s undergraduate tuition fee cap to £9,000 per year
• Voted strongly against a reduction in spending on welfare

Maria Eagle holds the Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs portfolio. Eagle has been Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Garston and Halewood since 1997. She has held the rank of Minister of State at both the Government Equalities Office and the Ministry of Justice. She was previously a Minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Education and Skills, and the Northern Ireland Office.

After the 2010 general election she became the Shadow Solicitor General. On 8 October 2010, Eagle was announced as the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport in Ed Miliband’s new shadow cabinet. She is, as of 7 October 2013, Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and she holds that position following the 2015 general election.

A selection of Maria Eagle’s votes. (Source: theyworkforyou.com)

• Voted moderately for measures to prevent climate change
• Voted very strongly against selling England’s state owned forests
• Voted very strongly for replacing Trident with a new nuclear weapons system
• Voted moderately for removing hereditary peers from the House of Lords
• Voted very strongly against raising England’s undergraduate tuition fee cap to £9,000 per year
• Voted strongly against a reduction in spending on welfare benefits
• Voted strongly against reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the “bedroom tax”)
• Voted moderately against encouraging occupational pensions