Labour accuses Reform of threatening almost one million jobs with net zero plans

Reform UK’s “war” on net zero would cost almost one million jobs, the energy minister has claimed, as Labour steps up its attacks on Nigel Farage’s party over green power.

Michael Shanks said Reform’s opposition to net zero amounted to a “war on jobs”, saying working people “would lose jobs and opportunities if Farage’s party was ever allowed to impose its anti-jobs, anti-growth ideology on the country”.

His comments come after Reform deputy leader Richard Tice wrote to energy companies urging them not to invest in the latest round of green energy contracts, known as Allocation Round 7 (AR7).

Unsafe

Mr Tice said he had put the companies on “formal notice” that their investments were “politically and commercially unsafe” as a future Reform government would seek to “strike down all contracts signed under AR7”.

But he later told the BBC that Reform would not renege on contracts, only oppose any “variation”.

Mr Shanks called the letter an “energy surrender plan that would leave bills high for families and businesses, keeping the UK stuck on the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets”.

Labour also pointed to estimates from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which suggested the net zero sector now supported 951,000 jobs across the country.

That figure includes almost 138,000 jobs in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber, areas where Reform has enjoyed electoral success including in this year’s Greater Lincolnshire mayoral contest and Mr Tice’s own Boston and Skegness constituency.

Mr Tice said: “Labour’s reckless net zero fantasies are destroying hundreds of thousands of industrial jobs, costing taxpayers £12 billion a year in renewable subsidies, and leaving us with some of the highest energy bills in the world.

“The OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) confirms that £30 billion of taxpayer money is being poured into net zero projects. These policies are crippling our economy and driving people out of this country.”

Lost income

In a report published last week, the OBR estimated tackling climate change would cost the Government £30 billion a year, largely in lost income from taxes such as fuel duty.

But it also warned that failing to act presented a “more significant fiscal cost” because of damage caused by climate change.

Mr Shanks’s intervention is the latest in a series of Labour attack lines against Reform, which Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer now regards as his real opponents.

Reform has made opposition to net zero a major part of its platform since the last election.

Earlier in the year Mr Tice pledged to “wage war” on the policy while Greater Lincolnshire mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns told Times Radio on Thursday she did not believe climate change was real.

But Labour believes this could be a weakness for Mr Farage’s party, as polls indicate net zero continues to enjoy significant support.

One survey conducted on behalf of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit ahead of the local elections in May found 54% of Reform voters backed “policies to stop climate change”.