Ed Miliband admitted in 2009 that his green taxes would have a direct negative effect on the cost of living.

When pushed by Andrew Marr about the impact of green measures “on the price of energy” and “the price of basic living necessities”, the then Energy Secretary replied: “there are upward pressures on prices, yes”:

Andrew Marr Show, July 13th 2009

AM: A very simple question  when it comes to the price of energy, when it comes to the price of basic living necessities, it may not be £230-a-year as the Sunday Mirror says, but are we or are we not going to have to pay more.

EM: There are upward pressures on prices, yes.

AM: Yes, the answer’s yes.

Later that year at a speech in Poland, Miliband called for the world to “lose three months or six months of economic growth” to act on climate change immediately:

Demos Europa talk at Warsaw School of Economics, October 7th 2009

“The costs of acting on climate change are something like 1% of national income, 1%-2% of national income, by 2050. So we can either lose three months or six months of economic growth, for the world, and act, or we face this huge risk in relation to the cost of adapting to climate change.”

The speech came at the height of the economic crisis, yet as a government minister Miliband was advocating hitting growth in order to pursue climate change policies. In government Ed was happy to raise the cost of living for ideological reasons. This is Green Ed’s cost of living crisis.