Ed Miliband responds to the Climate Change Committee’s damning report on the Conservatives failure to deliver clean power

Ed Miliband MP, Labour’s Shadow Climate Secretary, commenting on the Climate Change Committee’s damning report on the Conservatives failure to deliver clean power, said:

“This report is yet another damning indictment of failure in Conservative energy and climate policy. Year after year they are condemned as failing, year after they fail to step up. While we may have become used to this government as being described as ‘asleep at the wheel’ and ‘failing to deliver’ we should realise what it means: higher bills for families, our energy security weakened by our dependence on fossil fuels, squandered opportunities for the jobs that clean energy can bring, and a dangerous lack of pace in tackling the climate crisis.

“The truth is that the Conservatives will never deliver the clean power system Britain needs. Grant Shapps persists with the ludicrous ban on onshore wind, that has put an extra £150 onto every families energy bills. They have botched energy efficiency schemes, which they continue to underfund. And as this report confirms, they have no plan to roll out the infrastructure we need to deliver cheaper, cleaner power for our country.

“Only Labour has a plan to cut energy bills for good- starting with a proper windfall tax on the oil and gas giants to stop energy prices rising this April, and continuing with our long-term mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030. Labour will cut bills, support British industry reindustrialise Britain, and give us energy security by unleashing the power of our natural resources to deliver clean, cheap power- including through GB Energy, our publicly owned energy company.”