PM to invest in wind farms after telling LBC "they couldn't pull skin off a rice pudding"

6 October 2020, 10:42 | Updated: 6 October 2020, 11:32

Boris Johnson tells LBC wind turbines "couldn't pull skin off a rice pudding"

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to invest £160 million in offshore wind power today, despite announcing on LBC in 2013 that turbines "couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding."

Speaking to breakfast presenter Nick Ferrari seven years ago, the former London Mayor said: "Labour put in a load of wind farms that failed to pull the skin off a rice pudding.

"We now have the opportunity to get shale gas - let's look at it."

However, today the Prime Minister will announce his target for wind energy to power every UK home by 2030.

He will make the remarks at a keynote address to the virtual Tory conference on Tuesday and pledge the UK will become the "world leader in clean wind energy."

Nick Ferrari put the comments made by Boris Johnson to Chancellor Rishi Sunak who was unable to explain the contradiction.

He said: "I don’t know about then.

"The difference now is wind power, we know it’s clean, but it’s also now cheap and affordable, and it’s something we're very good at in this country.

"We can be a global leader in it. It can be a brand new industry for us, create lots of jobs."

Chancellor on offshore wind energy

The plan would see £160 million made available to upgrade ports and infrastructure across areas like Teesside and Humber in northern England, Scotland and Wales as the next generation of turbines are built.

Mr Johnson will say: "We need to give people the chance to train for the new jobs that are being created every day - in new technologies and new ways of doing things.

"And, there is one area where we are progressing quite literally with gale force speed and that is the green economy - the green industrial revolution that in the next 10 years will create hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs.

"I can today announce that the UK Government has decided to become the world leader in low cost clean power generation - cheaper than coal and gas - and we believe that in 10 years' time offshore wind will be powering every home in the country, with our target rising from 30 gigawatts to 40 gigawatts."

Mr Johnson states the UK is to wind what Saudi Arabia is to oil.

The Prime Minister will say: "You heard me right. Your kettle, your washing machine, your cooker, your heating, your plug-in electric vehicle - the whole lot of them will get their juice cleanly and without guilt from the breezes that blow around these islands.

"We will invest £160 million in ports and factories across the country, to manufacture the next generation of turbines.

"And we will not only build fixed arrays in the sea, we will build windmills that float on the sea - enough to deliver one gigawatt of energy by 2030, 15 times as much as the rest of the world put together.

"Far out in the deepest waters we will harvest the gusts, and by upgrading infrastructure in places like Teesside and Humber and Scotland and Wales we will increase an offshore wind capacity that is already the biggest in the world.

"As Saudi Arabia is to oil, the UK is to wind - a place of almost limitless resource, but in the case of wind without the carbon emissions and without the damage to the environment.

"I remember how some people used to sneer at wind power, 20 years ago, and say that it wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.

"They forgot the history of this country. It was offshore wind that puffed the sails of Drake and Raleigh and Nelson, and propelled this country to commercial greatness.

"This investment in offshore wind alone will help to create 60,000 jobs in this country - and help us to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050."

Downing Street said the £160 million investment programme "will see around 2,000 construction jobs rapidly created and will enable the sector to support up to 60,000 jobs directly and indirectly by 2030 in ports, factories and the supply chains, manufacturing the next-generation of offshore wind turbines and delivering clean energy to the UK".

Referring to the controversy over the coronavirus test and trace operation, Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said the Prime Minister should use his speech to deal "with the crisis at hand".

Ms Rayner said: "The testing fiasco over the past 24 hours has again exposed the serial incompetence of Boris Johnson and his Government.

"The Prime Minister should use his speech to set out how he will get a grip and tackle the crisis at hand."