For a brief moment, it looked (to the untrained eye) as though both Labour and the Conservatives were about to take a slightly more appropriate approach to green issues.
Sir Keir Starmer’s government was considering cutting some of the £13.2 billion (€15.68bn) budget for one of its main net zero programs, while Tory leader Kemi Badenoch delivered a speech in March in which she appeared to suggest her party—which legally committed the UK to the net-zero-by-2050 target in the first place—was turning its back on the scheme altogether.
But the strong eco factions in both these parties have since regained the upper hand, ensuring once again that sensible talk is not followed up by the establishment.
Reports on Wednesday revealed that Labour net zero secretary Ed Miliband has defeated Chancellor Rachel Reeve’s attempt to slash funding for the ‘warm homes plan,’ which aims to make properties more energy efficient via insulation. Starmer decided to side with Miliband rather than Reeves, according to The Daily Telegraph, in a sign of the environmental wing’s strength.
Net zero sceptic Ben Pile said that on this issue at least, Reeves “may be the closest approximation of reason in the Cabinet,” given that “the economics of ‘energy efficiency’ do not stack up.” But all that really matters is that she failed to get the prime minister’s ear.
Everyone's laughing at Rachel Reeves dire Thick-of-it-esque escapades.
But she may be the closest approximation of reason in the Cabinet. But only in contrast to Milly.
"Starmer sides with Energy Secretary after Chancellor seeks to cut key projects"https://t.co/osgKkxPI8R
Badenoch also received what the press described as a “major pushback” this week against her net zero backtrack, which was over-egged in the first place.
Conservative bigwig James Cleverly said that rather than turning their backs on the green agenda, Tories should “set the pace” on ‘environmental technologies.’ He celebrated that “the UK is advancing rapidly in renewable energy generation” (at what cost?), but stressed:
We must push further, faster and smarter.
The Net Zero Watch campaign group criticised Cleverly and other “Green Tories” for “destroying their dying party,” adding: “It seems the green Tories never want to be back in government.”
This, of course, is all good news for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which says it wants to scrap net zero targets altogether and use the funds saved as a result to pay for pro-family policies.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
