Labour’s net zero target could cost ‘hundreds of billions’, shadow minister says in leaked audio recording
LABOUR’S net zero plans will cost “hundreds of billions of pounds”, a top frontbencher has revealed.
Darren Jones told a local activist meeting in Bristol that Sir Keir’s scaled down £28bn for eco-energy funding was only a “tiny” amount.
The shadow chief secretary to the Treasury even admitted the £5bn of Net Zero funding promised in the manifesto “made it sound as if we basically junked the whole thing but we definitely haven’t”.
In a recording obtained by The Telegraph, Mr Jones told the public meeting in Bristol that Labour would also prioritise green transition policies despite industry experts branding them unsustainable.
The leaked comments will set off more sparks over Labour’s spending plans ahead of tonight’s TV debate between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.
The Tories have repeatedly claimed that Sir Keir’s plans will cost more than listed in the Labour manifesto and will lead to a string of brutal tax hikes.
Mr Jones told one guest that “decarbonising” the power grid “is still one of the top five priorities and it is going to be a huge amount of effort to get there because we’ll have to move quite quickly.”
He went on: “But a lot of the coverage in the news was about that specific 28 [billion], which because journalists saw conflict made it sound as if we basically junked the whole thing but we definitely haven’t.”
And probed on whether £28bn was enough, Jones admitted: “No, it’s tiny. Hundreds of billions of pounds we need.”
He told the meeting that the £28 billion figure was not affordable in the next five years and conceded it “became a distraction against the mission of decarbonising the power system by 2030”.
And criticising his own party, he added: “It wasn’t really defined well enough in the first place, so we probably shouldn’t have announced it in the way we did”.
Laura Trott, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said Sir Keir “must be straight with people and urgently explain what taxes will Labour put up” to fund the green investment plan.
She continued: “This is very serious.
“Rather than costing £5 billion a year, the man Keir Starmer would put in charge of the country’s money is saying Labour’s flagship policy would mean spending ‘hundreds of billions of pounds’ more than Labour are telling people in public.”