The Conservatives would scrap green taxes that are rapidly deindustrialising Britain.
If Keir Starmer really wants to help people with household energy bills, he should start by cutting the green taxes that make our bills some of the highest in the developed world.
But because the Prime Minister is so weakened by his political ineptitude, Ed Miliband is effectively running the Government. So, instead of removing the net-zero levies, Rachel Reeves is considering a bailout for those struggling to pay their bills.
In reality, that means yet again more money for those on benefits, paid for by those in work. It means more borrowing, when we already have record borrowing and the cost of government debt is reaching levels not seen since the financial crisis.
A bailout is a sticking plaster. There is a better way and it cuts energy costs for everyone.
Energy is growth. I grew up in a country rich with oil, but because Nigeria’s leaders made bad policy choices, it never lived up to its full potential, instead hampered by unreliable electricity and regular fuel shortages.
Britain is now making similar mistakes. It astonishes me to see Labour considering subsidies as the first option instead of drilling our own oil and gas and cutting the green taxes that are deindustrialising the UK. That’s where Conservatives would start.
Successive governments have taken decisions with well-meaning intentions, but are forcing us into energy reliance. Western leaders were sucked into a utopian ideal of removing carbon immediately from our energy mix. It’s now very clear that this was a mistake.
Back in 2019, I was one of only two MPs in Parliament to question the wisdom of legislating for net zero by 2050. From the moment this target was conceived, it looked undeliverable and potentially crippling to British families and businesses – a slogan, not a serious economic strategy.
This is how it’s played out. Britain is rapidly deindustrialising, jobs and skills have been lost, supply chains are hollowed out, and our businesses pay the highest rates for electricity anywhere in the developed world. Labour, however, seems unconcerned. Ed Miliband is utterly convinced by his own dogma, that renewables alone can power our energy needs, domestic oil and gas production doesn’t matter, and global markets can fill the gaps.
For a start, this is illogical. Renewables will always require backup, and the planet isn’t helped by importing solar panels from China, a country building a new coal-fired power station every other week.
But worse than that, it’s also incredibly dangerous, as the latest surge in gas prices shows.
It’s clear that no one really knows when this war is going to end, least of all Keir Starmer. He has made it his mission to ensure Britain has absolutely no say or seat at the table. Britain is now hostage to forces we cannot control, left with no choice but to buy energy at inflated prices to keep the lights on.
No strong country can live like this. We can only guarantee our security and prosperity in an unstable world if we produce our own cheap, reliable energy.
That doesn’t mean throwing all progress with renewables out the window. It means drilling in the North Sea and expanding other sources of generation too. This is the only way we can protect families from rising bills, keep the cost of energy down for business, and control inflation.
It’s also the only way we’ll ever get any economic growth, because if businesses can’t afford energy, growth is dead. Getting Britain drilling again is an economic double whammy, because it also creates jobs here in the UK. A thousand jobs a day are being lost in our oil and gas industry in Scotland alone.
The Conservatives are the only party with a plan to fix Britain’s energy problems. Our Cheap Power Plan would cut household electricity bills by 20 per cent. It would axe the Carbon Tax (the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and Carbon Price Support) on electricity generation, reducing wholesale electricity prices by a third.
We would also remove Ed Miliband’s old Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) scheme, which pays up to three times more than the market price of electricity. Unlike Labour and Reform’s plans, it would also help businesses, with the average restaurant saving £5,000 and the average pub saving £1,100.
This is the difference between the Conservatives and other parties. Labour always reaches for more borrowing and handouts when the red lights start flashing. Reform make noise, but have done no serious work or planning and the Greens presumably think the country can run on vegetable oil.
Energy built modern Britain, powered our industries, and meant for most of modern history our people were the richest in the world. We have the resources, expertise and history to solve this problem, and the Conservatives are doing the work to solve it. It’s time to get Britain working again. That starts with cutting bad taxes and drilling our own oil and gas.
