LABOUR will aim to transform the UK into a green energy superpower but transitioning from oil and gas will take many years, according to its shadow Treasury chief secretary.
Pat McFadden MP told GB News: “The figures that we’re publishing today show that heavy industrial users are paying significantly more for their energy than comparable users in neighbouring economies.
“That’s bad for the UK because it makes it more expensive to produce things here compared to other countries and it makes investors think twice about making an investment because the energy costs are higher.”
“We’ve got to speed up the transition towards renewables because they are coming in cheaper than fossil fuels at the moment. They are less prone to geopolitical things like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which causes such a huge increase in energy prices over the past couple of years. So we’ve got to press forward with this. It’s a transition that’s coming anyway, but we’re not going fast enough on it.”
The proposal comes after Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves rowed back on the party’s plan to invest £28 billion a year in green industries if it wins power, saying it needs to be “responsible” with the public finances.
Mr McFadden said the party’s transition to renewables would not be “a full stop” for oil and gas.
This comes after the general secretary of the GMB Union, one of the biggest donors to the Labour Party, called its policies on banning North Sea oil and gas production “naïve.”
“In terms of oil and gas within our transition, it’s not a full stop. It’s a transition and we’ll need oil and gas for many years to come, including oil and gas in the North Sea,” he said.
“But the focus for the future for us will be on renewables, and that’s why we’re talking today about onshore wind and the kind of things that we need to do to move away from our reliance on oil and gas.”
In a swipe at the government’s record on the economy, Mr McFadden said any Labour government’s first priority would be financial stability.
“We’ve got to do this in line with our fiscal rules,” he added. “And we’ve got to do this in a way that puts financial stability as the first priority for the Labour government: We’re not going to make the same mistakes as the Tories.”
The Wolverhampton South East MP told Breakfast with Stephen Dixon and Anne Diamond that he had not read the former Prime Minister’s first column since quitting as an MP last week.
“I’m not too fussed what he writes,” he said.
“I think the fear over these columns is probably greater in Number 10 because there’s obviously been a massive falling out between Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson.
“And that division is just stopping the government from taking care of the kind of problems that we’ve been discussing earlier in the interview and I don’t think they can solve themselves anymore.
“I think the only way they can sort themselves out is for a period in opposition.”
