Labour’s net zero plans would leave Britain at the mercy of China, the Energy Secretary has claimed.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Claire Coutinho said Labour’s pledge to convert Britain to “clean power” by 2030 – five years earlier than the Conservatives – would leave the UK “over-reliant” on Chinese-made metals, cables and batteries, just as Europe was weaning itself off Russian oil and gas.
Ms Coutinho claimed that Sir Keir Starmer’s target to “decarbonise” the electricity grid five years earlier than the Conservatives’ 2035 target would mean going “too fast, too soon”, resulting in a “made in China” transition, because of a need to import key materials to have any hope of achieving the plan within six years.
She also claimed that the plans, which form part of Labour’s proposals to meet the overall 2050 net zero target, could threaten the UK’s ability to “keep the lights on”.
The Cabinet minister said that industry figures were privately “worried” and believed that the plan was “unfeasible”, despite companies being reluctant to criticise Labour publicly.
Ms Coutinho said: “At the moment there is one global dominant player when it comes to things like critical minerals or batteries and that’s China.
“So if you’re saying that we are going to have this unfeasible target, which no other major economy would have, what you’re ultimately sending out to the world is that we’re willing to pay whatever price you will put to us, which will see costs implode, you also don’t have time for the supply chains here to develop, which means you’ll be reliant on China.
“So that means that what Labour are putting forward is a ‘made in China’ transition, but I want one that’s made in Britain.”
Ed Miliband, the shadow net zero secretary, said: “Fourteen years of failed Tory energy policy has seen jobs driven overseas, our clean energy infrastructure imported from aboard, and our country left exposed to the worst cost of living crisis in memory. The Tories have had no industrial strategy and no plan – and households and businesses across the country have paid the price. Labour is determined to change this.”