Ed Miliband’s Net Zero obsession is driving up your bills, writes Claire Coutinho MP

Britain faces a choice. You either think the most important thing for the energy system to do is to squeeze out every last drop of carbon emissions, no matter the cost. Or you think our problem is that we have the highest electricity prices in the world. I choose the latter.

That’s why yesterday I set out plans to cut every family’s electricity bill by 20 per cent. Our plans are in the gift of Ministers, and they could be done tomorrow.

At the election, Labour promised to cut your energy bills by £300. In reality, this was just a fantasy – and bills have risen by almost £200 since they came to power. But Reform is just as bad on energy. They’ve promised to cut your electricity bill by £1,000, but the average electricity bill is only £850. If you think a politician can give you electricity for free, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Ed Miliband says more wind will bring down bills, but he is signing contracts for wind power at the highest prices in a decade – up to 40 per cent higher than the current price of electricity, on twenty-year contracts. He is locking us into higher prices for longer, locking in a 10 per cent fixed-rate mortgage, because he doesn’t want a 4 per cent variable. That doesn’t make it cheaper, and it won’t cut bills by £300 like he promised.

In fact, because Ed is ideologically obsessed with Net Zero, he is signing up to climate targets that force people to be taxed into buying electric cars and electric heating, while at the same time those climate targets are making electricity unbearably expensive.

Net Zero has become a religion, and for too long we were unthinking members of the congregation. But as new businesses close every week and costs for consumers continue to rise, we must be honest. Britain’s biggest energy problem is not carbon, it’s cost.

That’s why we will scrap the Climate Change Act and replace it with an energy strategy that prioritises cheap, reliable energy and cutting bills. No more unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats pushing for policies that make people poorer and make our electricity more expensive.

And yesterday I announced the first two policies from our Cheap Power Plan to cut bills instantly for every family in Britain.

Our first step will be to Axe the Carbon Tax on electricity generation. When Ed Miliband says gas is the problem, what he doesn’t tell you is that 30 per cent of what you pay for electricity produced by gas is a Carbon Tax that the Government chooses to impose. This simply increases everybody’s bills and makes people poorer.

This will cut the wholesale price of electricity by a third and save the typical family £75 a year. We will also scrap Ed Miliband’s old rip-off wind and solar subsidies, which pay multi-million-pound wind farm developers up to three times the market price of electricity, saving another £90 a year.

These steps will reduce household electricity bills by 20 per cent, or £165 for the average family - putting more money back in people’s pockets and supporting British businesses too.

When it comes to energy policy, our priority won’t be ideology, it won’t be vested interests, it won’t be fake promises we can’t deliver. It will be cheap, reliable and abundant energy.

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Claire Coutinho is the Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Conservative MP for East Surrey.

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