MYTHS are easy to make; they're much harder to bust. As I return to parliament I'm determined to do much more of the latter. Over the summer, away from Westminster, I have read a lot online and listened to a lot of chatter around politics. And I was alarmed at how many myths are pervasive in the public consciousness.

Last year, renewables powered more than half of the UK's electricity for the first time in our history. That's a great achievement, and marks a substantial increase from the previous year. This should be a great moment to celebrate the clean power mission of getting to carbon free electricity by 2030. But when I posted this news on social media, I was accused of lying. And told that the more we turn to renewables, the higher energy prices rise—one of the major myths of our times when, in fact, the opposite is true. As long as we're reliant on oil and gas from Russia and the Middle East our energy prices will keep rising due to the volatile nature of the global market.

A significant future-proof shift in the UK's energy system—a true alternative to fossil fuels—is vital. We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged back into the past. Cornwall has huge capacity for offshore and onshore wind generation and geothermal and tidal energy. These last two, along with nuclear, offer steady 24-hour base load supplies that don’t rely on the sun shining or the wind blowing. Renewable generators typically have the lowest costs (because they do not have to buy fuel to burn) and so are the first to meet demand. Fossil fuel generators (including gas) often have the highest costs as they must buy fuel to burn, which also has a carbon price on it.

In times past, Britain championed using local resources to benefit both local communities and the nation at large. Cornwall is a renewable energy hub.

Are our energy bills still too high? Yes. That's a fair criticism. We know that the invasion of Ukraine and the Covid pandemic have made gas even more expensive and that the Conservatives didn’t build up our gas storage facilities when they were in power. As a nation, we are vulnerable to gas shortages and price rises. And while most electricity in this country is produced using sources with low marginal costs (renewables and nuclear) we still pay a premium for wholesale electricity because the ‘spot market’ is largely determined by the price of natural gas, which is the most expensive way of producing electricity.

Slowly, we are moving away from this model. But we need more renewables, not less. And we need to fix our grid transmissions system and reform the pricing structure too. Prices will come down under this government. It won’t be instant. I will never understand why some people want to keep us reliant on foreign energy when the future is, quite literally, blowing in the air and beneath our feet.