Miliband’s net zero policies branded ‘fantasy’ by Tony Blair | Politics | News

Sir Tony Blair has attacked Ed Miliband’s energy policies as “fantasy” amid rising bills.

The former Prime Minister blasted the Energy Secretary’s drive to reach net zero despite the UK being responsible for less than 1% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions.

The spectacular red-on-red broadside comes as households are warned their energy bills will rise by £221 after the latest price cap rose by 13%.

Sir Tony said the UK should look for cheaper energy, arguing the UK cannot solve climate change alone and urging ministers to focus on the urgent crisis of rising costs and energy demand

“Our energy costs are really high right now, they are imposing costs on business, we have an artificial intelligence revolution that will use more and more energy,” he said.

“It’s a quixotic fantasy to think about this as Britain has decided to go a different route at great expense.”

While he has expressed disappointment over Britain limiting North Sea drilling, other countries continue to seek cheaper energy as well as electrification.

Sir Tony also called on the Prime Minister to rethink Labour’s approach to net zero and abandon policies that put climate targets ahead of affordability.

The UK has legally committed to offset the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by 2050.

But the former Prime Minister called on Labor ministers to “remove parts of the net zero agenda that prioritize clean energy over cheap energy”.

When the Prime Minister was asked on Wednesday if he was proposing to smash the Energy Minister’s targets, he said: “Yes I am and I will tell you exactly why.

“It’s not that I’m against renewable energy, clean energy, or climate denial.

“We are beginning to face this reality: The world’s three largest emitters today are China, America and India. Together they account for just over 50% of global emissions.

“They’re all looking for cheap energy and electrification. That doesn’t mean they don’t use renewable energy; China produces more renewable energy than the rest of the world combined.

“It just means that the lens through which they evaluate policy is the need for cheap energy and electrification, especially in the age of artificial intelligence.”

He added: “The UK’s emissions are below 1% of global emissions, we can’t solve climate change and we can’t impose costs on our own businesses and consumers to accelerate getting to net zero when the rest of the world doesn’t – I don’t understand the logic behind this or shutting down our own oil and gas industry in circumstances where again I don’t know of any other country in the world that has done this.”

And in a scathing comment aimed specifically at Mr Miliband, he joked: “Xi Jinping can’t sit in Beijing and say, ‘I wonder what Ed Miliband is thinking’.”

Sir Tony’s intervention comes after regulator Ofgem announced that average households using both electricity and gas face a bill increase of an average of £18 a month compared to July.

While the energy cost for a typical household could be seen at £1,862, an increase of £221 on current levels, there are early predictions that this will rise further in October.

His comments came after he published a damning 5,000-word article through his think tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, warning Labor against moving left as the party was dragged into a leadership battle.

Labor has pledged to cut energy bills by hundreds of pounds ahead of the 2024 general election as part of its flagship Green Prosperity Plan designed to transform Britain into a “clean energy superpower”.

At the center of the strategy is GB Energy, Labour’s £8.3bn publicly owned clean energy company headquartered in Scotland; The company will help create 650,000 jobs, reduce average household bills by £300 and strengthen the UK’s energy security.

Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho said: “Labour promised to reduce bills by £300 but due to Ed Miliband’s policy choices before the war in Iran began, bills have increased by £200.

“We already have some of the cleanest electricity in the world, but it is also some of the most expensive.

“To make electricity cheap, we need to scrap net zero and reduce taxes and duties on bills. Whether it’s air conditioning, artificial intelligence, industry or living standards, we need to put cheap energy first.”

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice said Mr Miliband’s “net zero fanaticism is crippling British industry” and making life harder for workers.

He added: “The question is why Keir Starmer still allows Miliband to sabotage the British economy with policies that deliver next to nothing.”

Analysts at Cornwall Insight suggested in their initial forecast for October-December that the energy cap could be £1,899 per year, up 2% on July.

This will occur as temperatures drop and energy use increases.

Dr Craig Lowrey, principal consultant at Cornwall Insight, said: “Many people assume that if the conflict in the Middle East ends tomorrow, prices will return to pre-conflict levels fairly quickly. But this may be overly optimistic. The damage to infrastructure, disruption to supply chains and the erosion of market confidence will not be resolved overnight and the effects may be felt on bills for longer than many expect.”

Mr Miliband did not respond directly to Sir Tony’s comments on Wednesday, instead blaming the increase in the price cap on “a war we did not choose”.

He added: “We know people were under pressure before this crisis and so easing that burden is our number one priority.

“We will continue to monitor the situation ahead of winter and plan for any contingencies. In the short term, mitigating this conflict is crucial to driving down oil and gas prices, and we must learn the right lessons as the UK faces its second fossil fuel crisis of this decade.”

“The way to cut bills completely and avoid these price rises is to go further and faster with this government’s clean domestic energy drive, which we control. We’re renovating as many homes as possible ahead of winter with the biggest investment in warm homes in British history.”

In the King’s speech earlier this month, the Government reiterated its manifesto determination not to issue new licenses to explore new oil and gas fields.

The House of Commons voted by 323 to 108, a majority of 215, to defeat a Conservative amendment to the King’s Speech that had pressured ministers to approve drilling at the Rosebank and Jackdaw oilfields.

Experts said halting green taxes would cut fuel bills by around £100, with the increase in costs mainly due to fluctuation in wholesale gas prices.

Ecotricity founder Dale Vince has called on the Government to completely remove environmental and social taxes from energy bills and include them in general taxation.

He said: “They are almost always referred to as green taxes but they are actually a mix of green and social – energy efficiency measures for poorer households, for example.

“The addition of these taxes to energy bills is unique; for example, we spend £2bn a year subsidizing trains, but no tax is added to train tickets for this; payment is made from general taxation. As with agricultural and food bills, subsidies are not added to the cost of food.”

The Labor donor added: “The biggest thing the government can do about these green and social taxes is to scrap them completely and cover the cost from general taxation.”

According to a YouGov poll, two-thirds (65%) of Britons prioritize preventing increases in energy bills over removing all fossil fuels from the UK’s electricity supply (24%).

Only Green voters prefer removing fossil fuels from the energy supply (56%) rather than preventing bills from rising (34%).

Voters of all other main parties prioritized preventing bill increases.

Jess Ralston, head of energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: The UK is currently in a heatwave where floods and fires are becoming more common.

“British farmers are struggling with the worst harvests on record for several years, which is impacting on our food prices.

“Net zero is the only way we have to stop these effects of climate change from getting worse, and it also means greater energy independence, as more wind and solar power, heat pumps and electric vehicles mean less oil and gas imports from abroad.

“Publics are fed up with rising bills as a result of conflicts thousands of miles away and are increasingly installing net zero technologies such as solar panels to take back control of their energy – voting with their feet on net zero.”