Green tycoon gives £15,000 to Corbyn’s party just days before turbines pledge

Boss of Ecotricity emerges as party’s largest election donor as it promises to boost renewables sector

A GREEN energy tycoon donated £15,000 to Labour days before the party pledged to build thousands of wind turbines and “enough solar panels to cover 22,000 football pitches”.

Official figures show Dale Vince, the founder of Ecotricity, is Labour’s largest individual donor so far in the election campaign, having given the sum to the party on Nov 12, through his firm.

Mr Vince attended the Labour manifesto launch in Birmingham on Thursday, where the party pledged to build 7,000 offshore wind turbines, 2,000 onshore and solar panels spanning the equivalent of 22,000 football pitches.

Ecotricity operates 24 onshore wind farms, with a further four either awaiting construction or planning approval. It also runs a solar farm in Lincolnshire and won permission for four more.

Mr Vince, who donated to Labour in 2015 and 2018, described Jeremy Corbyn’s speech as “really inspirational”.

Mr Corbyn’s pledges to build more turbines and solar panels mark a victory for the renewables industry. Labour’s 2015 and 2017 manifestos made no specific mention of such schemes, instead committing it to “deliver the energy mix we need” and to invest in “renewable energy production”, amid opposition to onshore projects.

After the launch, Mr Vince wrote: “Really inspirational listening to Jeremy Corbyn, he’s so genuine, so real. Poles apart from the dodgy guy leading the Tories. I got a copy of the little red book, the Green Industrial Revolution is chapter number one, good start.”

Glyn Davies, the former Tory MP for Montgomeryshire who opposed onshore turbines, said yesterday: “Dale Vince is a good businessman and I don’t suppose he’ll be making big donations for no reason. But I know from experience that he is in a small minority.”

The Green Industrial Revolution chapter sets out how Labour intends to put the UK “on track” to cut net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2030.

Plans include expansion of wind and solar farms and a pledge to “trial and expand” tidal energy schemes. Ecotricity has proposed building tidal schemes in the Solway Firth, between Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway.

Mr Vince gave £10,000 to Labour last year and £150,000 in February 2015. As The Telegraph disclosed, Mr Vince appeared to have benefited from a generous subsidy introduced by Labour to encourage renewable energy projects.

Subsidies for wind and solar farms were cut under David Cameron after pressure from Tory grassroots and backbenchers, while a rule change made it harder to gain permission for new schemes. In August more than 150 MPs, including 35 Conservatives, wrote to Boris Johnson calling for more onshore wind farms. Labour’s pledges on wind, solar and tidal energy adopted proposals in “30 by 2030”, an “expert briefing” commissioned by the party and published on Oct 24. Mr Vince told a Labour event on Nov 1: “The biggest thing that any of us can do to fight the climate crisis is vote Labour.”

Last month Mr Vince, who is also chairman of Forest Green Rovers FC, backed legal action intended to force Mr Johnson to delay Brexit. Yesterday he said: “Labour’s stance on green issues has been in the public domain for a long time. The manifesto launched this week only confirmed that. I support Labour because they have the only sensible Brexit policy, the greenest environmental and industrial policy and they are the only party focused on social justice and greater equality in our country – and in whose hands the NHS is truly safe.”

Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to launch a £57billion scheme to compensate more than three million women who were born in the Fifties and were impacted by the increase in the state pension age, from 60 to 65, since 2010.

John McDonnell, Labour shadow chancellor, said a “debt of honour” is owed to the estimated 3.8million women who were forced to delay claiming their state pensions. Under Labour’s plans, they could be in line for an average payout of £15,380.

‘Dale Vince is a good businessman and I don’t suppose he’ll be making big donations for no reason’