Sunak: Green farce proves Keir’s a man with no plan

Tories queue up to mock Starmer for £28bn U-turn

LABOUR yesterday scrambled to defend their ‘colossal’ U-turn on green investment as the party’s main economic policy lay ‘in tatters’.

Rishi Sunak and a string of ministers mocked Sir Keir Starmer’s abandonment of his pledge to spend £28billion a year on environmental projects as proof that he has no plan for the country.

It came as the Labour leader claimed voters would appreciate him being ‘straight’ with them rather than make promises he cannot keep. And Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, when asked why the public should believe what she says, insisted she would not apologise for the massive scaling back of the Green Prosperity Plan.

As the backlash continued from Left-wing MPs, trade unions and the energy industry, the Conservatives

‘Can’t deliver change for the country’

took full advantage. on a visit to the South West yesterday, Mr Sunak said: ‘ What Labour announced yesterday just demonstrates what we’ve been saying – they absolutely don’t have a plan.’

He added: ‘Their signature economic policy is in tatters, and when you don’t have a plan, you can’t deliver any change for the country.’

Science minister Andrew Griffith said ‘this is the most colossal mother of all U-turns, but we still think he’s going to be putting up your taxes’. And energy security minister Claire Coutinho added: ‘Britain deserves a plan to keep energy bills down and to keep the lights on. Labour have shown again they do not have a credible plan on this area which deeply affects people’s lives.’

Defending the move to slash green spending from £28billion a year to £4.7billion, Sir Keir said yesterday: ‘Every family knows they’ve had to adjust their plans. We’ve now had to adjust our plans. And I think the British public appreciate us being straight and saying because of the damage the Tories have done, we can’t now do everything that we wanted to do.’

Labour insists it remains committed to delivering clean power for the UK by 2030 – meaning all electricity is generated by renewable energy and nuclear plants. But Mick Farr, chief executive of Triton Power, said: ‘It’s impossible even with unlimited funding.’

And trade body offshore Energies UK warned Labour’s pledge to extend the windfall tax on oil and gas producers would cost 42,000 jobs and £26billion of economic value.