One of Labour’s biggest donors has enjoyed a private line into the top of Ed Miliband’s department and the Energy Secretary himself. On policy matters highly relevant to his company…
Dale Vince, a green energy mogul, has donated more than £6 million to the Labour Party since 2013 (most of which came after 2021) via his business Ecotricity. He has communicated his strong views on rooftop solar and energy pricing to the top of DESNZ…
Guido can reveal that Vince’s office emailed the office of Chris Stark, head of Miliband’s Clean Power 2030 Unit, in June 2025 to set up a meeting. It took place on 29 July 2025. One of the “actions” agreed at that meeting was for Ecotricity to hand its own data on energy tariffs directly to Stark and the Clean Power 2030 Unit. On receiving Ecotricity’s material, a DESNZ official replied “I’m writing to confirm receipt and that I’ve boxed this for Chris to read.”
On 1 August 2025 Vince’s office emailed over Ecotricity’s “progressive pricing tariff submission,” which it said had been sent to the Treasury about a year earlier, along with links to Ecotricity and Green Britain Group reports and an unpublished draft report on Contracts for Difference.
On 23 November 2025 Vince published a proposal called “Cut Energy Bills in Half: A Plan Labour Can’t Ignore,” setting out the same tariff plans he had submitted privately to DESNZ. He proposes a so-called “progressive tariff” so “low-use households aren’t punished with stealth taxes” and removing VAT from energy. Miliband ally Miatta Fahnbulleh is writing Andy Burnham’s transition policy and has proposed a £7 billion “affordable energy guarantee” offering discounted rates for “essential” energy use…
In January this year Vince spoke directly to Miliband and DESNZ officials began arranging a meeting between Vince, Miliband, and Stark “to chat about our [Ecotricity’s] Rooftop Solar Project.” The national rooftop solar panel programme has long been pursued by Ecotricity and now part of the ‘Warm Homes Plan.’ The meeting – in March – was later scheduled with Miliband’s special advisers only…
Relations between Miliband and Vince have since soured and the Labour donor now accuses the Energy Secretary of wasting millions on Net Zero projects, a phrase which he has turned “toxic.” Vince says the term should be scrapped altogether. Things got nasty between March and June…
No meetings appear in the ministerial transparency returns. Dale Vince has taken to throwing his toys out of the pram and having temper tantrums of late…
Read the full emails below:
Former Treasury minister and adviser to Burnham in the Makerfield campaign Lord Jim O’Neill, who has turned down a role in his government, said Burnham’s first statement Commons was:
“The last thing investors wanted to hear… gilt yields have risen by a 0.25% in one day, which is a lot. We’ve not had that since Liz Truss days… If your country is under the focus of ‘can they come up with a sensible fiscal strategy’ on a day when the markets think ‘well no, you’re not showing any sign of it’ you’re going to have a tough day…if it stays like this your mortgage rate is going up.”