It’s another bad day to be Ed Miliband. First, he gets railroaded by Reeves on Heathrow’s third runway, and now the Treasury is sharpening its knives for GB Energy. The state-owned energy company, Labour’s big idea to “supercharge” Britain’s clean energy revolution, is reportedly staring down the barrel of cuts in June’s spending review. The £3.3 billion earmarked to fund low-interest loans for green projects is set to face the chop…
Despite Labour’s pledging £8.3 billion for GB Energy in its manifesto, now neither the Treasury nor DESNZ will guarantee the cash. Last month GB Energy chair Jürgen Maier admitted that it could take 20 years to meet its pledge to employ 1,000 people, refusing to even put a date on when it would bring down energy bills. Meanwhile, Ed’s been in the firing line over the ‘Green Prosperity Plan’, as the promise of it delivering ‘growth’ and 650,000 jobs by 2030 has been shredded by even Labour’s own side. Labour’s Net Zero growth row hasn’t run out of steam yet…
Andy Haldane, Burnham’s recent adviser on the economy who has not taken up a No10 job, told Andrew Marr on LBC:
“The market now suspects that this is a traditional tax-and-spend socialist government with better TikTok videos…
imposing windfall taxes on oil & gas or on banks or upping capital gains tax would […] repeat the mistake that Rachel made […] The Achilles heel, the fiscal Achilles heel of this government thus far has been its unwillingness and/or inability to cut public spending.”