Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones has denied voting in favour of fracking in the House of Commons last week.
An opposition Labour motion was put to the house which would have forced a vote on a bill to ban the controversial practice in the UK.
Mr Jones voted with the government on the night against the motion.
In his latest ‘Fact Check Friday’ video on Instagram, Mr Jones denied he voted in favour of fracking.
He said:
“Contrary to what some people would have you believe, I didn’t vote in favour of fracking during the debate in parliament this week.
“In fact, the vote wasn’t even directly about fracking at all. The vote was about changing the scheduled timetable of parliamentary business to allow the Labour Party to bring in a bill about fracking.
“A bill that hasn’t even been published.”
Read more:
- Andrew Jones MP launches ‘non-political’ fact-checking service
- Harrogate district MPs back government amid chaotic fracking vote
The government won by 319 votes to 228 – however the night descended into chaos amid allegations Tory MPs were “bullied and manhandled” into supporting former Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Mr Jones goes on to say in the video he is “relaxed” about the government’s position on fracking as there is “little possibility of any successful applications to frack”.
He adds that he has “always been skeptical about fracking” and that the UK’s future energy should be in renewables.
The video, which Mr Jones says includes “no politics”, goes onto show a clip of the then Liberal Democrat energy secretary, Sir Ed Davey, saying that the government had to find a “commercially viable way” to get shale gas out of the ground.
The clip then cuts to an image of Mr Jones and the hashtag ‘awks’, suggesting it reveals an awkward truth for the Lib Dems.
