Labour clean energy sprint will cut bills, says Miliband

LABOUR’S promise to provide 100 per cent of the UK’S electricity via renewables and nuclear will reduce household bills, Ed Miliband has said.

Mr Miliband, the party’s shadow climate change secretary, also insisted that people were happy to live near onshore wind farms.

In an interview for this weekend’s Chopper’s Politics Podcast, Mr Miliband said that it was in the Government’s interest to push for more green energy.

He said: “People are at home worrying about the energy bills and one of the surprising things was when Rishi Sunak said ‘I’ve got domestic things I need to worry about, not the climate crisis’. The climate crisis is domestic politics, but also this is the route to cheaper bills. This is the route to jobs. This is the route to energy security.”

He said Labour was committed to a “clean energy sprint” and wanted 100 per cent of the country’s power to be provided “by renewables and nuclear” by 2030. “We’d be the first major country in the world to do it. And we’re doing it for climate, but we’re also doing it to cut bills,” he said, adding it was “a huge economic opportunity”.

Labour would also lift the 2015 ban on onshore wind farms. He said: “Seventy-five per cent of people support onshore wind, including a majority of Conservative voters. You’re more likely to support them if you live near them.”

Mr Miliband will attend next week’s gathering for the Cop27 United Nations climate change meeting in Egypt.

He said he was “glad” that the Prime Minister had changed his mind and would attend, adding: “He’s been shamed into it, frankly, hasn’t he?”