Labour drops £28 billion green pledge

Yesterday Sir Keir Starmer confirmed that the policy would be scaled back, with the party instead looking to spend £23.7 billion over the next parliament were it to win power at the next election.

However, the Labour leader insisted that the party would still be able to achieve its ambition of clean power by 2030.

The scaled-back pledge will see the party’s Warm Homes Plan, a £6 billion package to improve energy efficiency, significantly downgraded after it was confirmed that it would take longer than planned to upgrade five million homes.

“There is nothing we have said we will do that we are now saying we won’t do,” Sir Keir said yesterday, adding: “I don’t want to have a row about the size of a cheque. I want to have a row about the outcomes.”

The move was met with condemnation from green groups which accused Labour of having “caved like a house of cards in the wind”.

Greenpeace UK’s co-executive director Areeba Hami said: “Climate action, including borrowing to invest in warmer homes, remains hugely popular among voters.

“It would be ironic indeed if Labour’s attempt to make their manifesto ‘bombproof’ from Tory attack ended up just bombing on the doorstep instead,” she said.

Mike Childs, head of policy at Friends of the Earth, said: “By seriously watering down its Warm Homes Plan, the Labour Party has turned its back on the people who most urgently need these essential upgrades – the many millions of low-income households suffering from living in poorly insulated homes.”

Confusion over the policy in the face of Conservative attacks had grown in recent weeks with opposition frontbenchers committing or refusing to commit to the pledge from day to day.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has repeatedly resisted calls to restate the party’s commitment to the £28bn figure, highlighting the need for “iron discipline” with the public finances subject to the party’s fiscal rules.

The move has been seized upon by Conservative MPs who have repeatedly accused Sir Keir of “flip-flopping” on major policies over recent months.

Following the announcement, Rishi Sunak said: “Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed he doesn’t have a plan for Britain. The uncertainty about what a Labour government would do is a real risk to our country’s future.

“Labour’s pledge – in their own words – has a £28 billion price tag and now they have admitted there is no plan to pay for it. This will mean higher taxes for working people to fill Labour’s black hole.

“That’s why the choice this year is to stick with our plan that’s working, or go back to square one with Labour which would put our country’s future at risk.”

The retained commitments in the Green Prosperity Plan, Labour’s central economic policy which include a “National Wealth Fund” used to invest in industry, includes the party’s commitment to the steel industry.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham welcomed Labour commitments to the steel industry, but said: “Britain needs more not less investment and there is still much to do in order for Labour to gain the trust of workers impacted by net zero.

“If Labour keep getting scared off by Tory attacks, they will end up outsourcing their policy making to the Conservatives.”

Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow energy secretary, said: ”Labour will be fighting the election with a world-leading agenda on climate and energy with every single individual policy already announced now confirmed for the manifesto: Great British Energy, a National Wealth Fund, a Warm Homes Plan, a British Jobs Bonus, a Local Power Plan and no new oil and gas licences as well as our 2030 clean power mission.”