Speaking at a Labour Conference fringe event Martin McCluskey, an energy minister, said he would nationalise the entire energy system with one button if he could. Direction of travel…
McCluskey explained Burnham’s pick and mix approach to ‘public control’:
“I think we need to think about public control as a range of interventions and not just as one intervention, or maybe how we would have thought about 40 or 50 years of just a sort of straightforward nationalisation – as much as I would like to be the minister with a button to change the energy system.”
The Tories have hit out at the eyebrow-raising comments. Andrew Bowie, Shadow Energy Secretary, said:
“Nationalising the entire energy system could leave taxpayers facing a bill running into tens of billions. Families don’t need Labour to spend billions buying up the energy system, they need their bills cut with a clear plan. The Conservatives would do exactly that through our Cheap Power Plan, cutting electricity costs and getting government out of the way so we can deliver cheaper, more reliable energy.”
Incidentally the Centre for Policy Studies calculated back in 2018 that nationalisation of energy would cost £55.4 billion. Dear Andy, there is no money…
As part of his piecemeal approach Burnham will today announce ‘GB Grid,’ a state body to invest in the electricity grid and compete with private companies like the National Grid. A government source tells Guido that DESNZ is likely to pay contractors to do the work. A roundabout way of getting the same results…
Bookmark this from Andy Burnham:
2029: “that’s when the next election will be.”
May 2027: “Absolutely not.”
“No election any time soon.”
“All of this speculation on an early election, I can knock that dead.”