Ed Miliband and Rachel Reeves’ vaunted decision to “delink” gas and electricity prices is likely to raise prices. All for one marketing stunt…
Policy changes announced today ostensibly aim to reduce the frequency at which electricity is sold at gas-linked wholesale prices. The government is doing two things to achieve this:
There are some other piecemeal measures. As the CPS’ Robert Colvile points out, making the CfD switch voluntary will likely raise prices. Voluntary contracts will only get accepted when the fixed price beats the generator’s expected wholesale earnings so the government is likely overpaying relative to where the market would have landed anyway. Generators bullish on high gas prices stay on wholesale and those expecting prices to fall lock in a guaranteed income above future market rates at consumer expense…
That means “breaking the link” is achieved by raising the cost of non-gas electricity to consumers. A DESNZ source tells Guido bills won’t go down: “The only caveat is that raising the levy on generators might give them no choice – but you won’t see bills go down.” The source added: “It’s just a marketing exercise to justify clean power.” More hot air…
The Tony Blair Institute has staged yet another rare intervention against Miliband’s Net Zero fantasy, with a new report accusing him of being too “ideological” and urging the government to approve the drilling of the Jackdaw gas field and the Rosebank oilfield. This is the fourth time in a year that Blair has criticised Labour over Net Zero…
The report, endorsed by Blair himself, says:
“…the UK debate remains too ideological, with the government focused on decarbonising power supply only and the opposition on expanding domestic oil and gas.
“Neither confronts the central challenge: only around a fifth of UK energy demand is currently met through electricity, leaving the wider economy heavily dependent on fossil fuels”
Miliband’s friendly profile in the New Statesman last month revealed he keeps in regular contact with Gordon Brown… but not so much Blair. Old habits…
Gargantuan Silicon Valley tech firm OpenAI has paused a major UK infrastructure project. Blaming energy costs and regulations…
Stargate is being paused:
“We see huge potential for the UK‘s AI future… AI compute is foundational to that goal — we continue to explore Stargate UK and will move forward when the right conditions such as regulation and the cost of energy enable long-term infrastructure investment.”
The project was announced in September when Trump visited the UK. Disaster for Miliband and Labour…
New polling from the TaxPayers’ Alliance shows just 6% of Welsh voters now see Net Zero as a top priority, with the cost of living, NHS waiting times and illegal immigration all ranking far higher. A single tear runs down Miliband’s cheek…
The poll of 1,011 Welsh adults found only 22% are confident the government will hit its 2050 target. Voters believe the Welsh Government’s pledge to make the public sector Net Zero by 2030 is unachievable by a two-to-one margin. 63% of voters also believe the Government should only attempt to reach Net Zero targets in the public sector if they can guarantee they won’t hike taxes to do it. So… they don’t support it.
More voters oppose than support the ban on new petrol cars, with half not even considering switching to an EV. One focus group participant put it best:
“What are they gonna do? Give the whole police fleet electric cars? They won’t get past the village.”
Focus group participants also described Labour as “incompetent“, “out of touch” and “wasteful“. Hardly a mystery why First Minister Eluned Morgan is on track to lose her seat…
Steve Yemm has told GB News’s Christopher Hope that up to 40 of his fellow Labour MPs have written privately to senior Cabinet ministers demanding a rethink of Miliband’s plan to end sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. Nearly one in ten of the PLP…
Speaking on Chopper’s Political Podcast, Yemm said:
“Some of us are really concerned because we meet with workers, we meet with management and we hear the same thing. There’s real unanimity around this question. Some of us are very concerned about jobs in our constituencies. And so, we are making our views known to government… We’re in a position where we’re being heard now, but it’s really important, of course, that we keep having that conversation and move it forward.”
Guido members will know plenty of Labour MPs were passing around Henry Tufnell’s Sun column earlier this week, which let rip over Miliband’s zealotry. Labour MPs who know this crusade is putting their own seats in jeopardy are getting braver in criticising it. If all the profiles on Miliband this week are anything to go by, the ‘real Prime Minister’ still isn’t interested…
DESNZ spent £64,376 flying ministers around the world in just three months, burping out around 22 tonnes of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere. Almost all of it was on trips to climate conferences. That is the ministerial bill alone. As the TaxPayers’ Alliance revealed, the full cost of the department’s COP30 delegation came to more than £800,000, with 73 officials making the trip to Brazil. Their flights cost £210,450, with another £6,091 spent on carbon credits to ‘offset’ the emissions…
Ed Miliband flew to Brazil twice in a single month, first for the COP World Leaders’ Summit and then again for the main conference a week later, at a combined ministerial cost of £25,750. His two return flights produced roughly 4.6 tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of nearly a full year of average UK household emissions…
The biggest single ministerial bill belonged to climate minister Katie White, whose seven-night COP30 trip cost £30,551. The flight was £11,078, but White also billed the taxpayer £19,473 in accommodation and expenses on the ground, nearly £2,800 a night.
Across the five ministerial trips, DESNZ ministers clocked up roughly 11.5 tonnes of CO2 from flights alone. Applying DEFRA’s own recommended “radiative forcing multiplier” for aviation bumps the total up to around 22 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. The average UK household produces about six tonnes a year. The department responsible for cutting emissions burned through nearly four years’ worth in a single quarter…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”