Sir Keir Starmer: Key role for Wales in making Britain an energy superpower
Sir Keir Starmer said his hopes of making Britain an “energy superpower” will include a key role for Wales, ahead of a wind farm visit with the new First Minister.
The Prime Minister and Eluned Morgan will travel to a site in West Wales on Tuesday as part of their first official visit together.
The pair, who held talks on Monday in Cardiff, are expected to pledge to work closely on realising the benefits of a publicly-owned energy company.
The Welsh Government previously launched Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru while the UK Government is developing Great British Energy.
GB Energy
GB Energy, which has been allocated £8.3 billion of funding over the next five years, has been tasked with developing future offshore wind projects as part of moves to hasten the UK’s transition to renewable energy.
The company is expected to lead energy projects through development stages to speed up the process, before returning them to private ownership but maintaining a stake.
Meanwhile, Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru was established to accelerate the development of renewable energy projects, particularly onshore wind, on the wider Welsh public estate.
Sir Keir said before the visit: “We have inherited an incoherent energy policy that has left homes up and down the country vulnerable to rocketing energy bills.
“But the Welsh Government has made important strides that we can now build on, and I am determined that Wales is at the very heart of our mission to make Britain an energy superpower, with renewables powering homes right across the country.
“Great British Energy will put the whole of the United Kingdom on the right path to deliver the independence we need, while helping to deliver lower bills for households and businesses and creating the next generation of skilled jobs.”
Sir Keir last month said it will “take time” to reap the benefits of clean power initiatives but stood by a claim that the UK Government’s plans will eventually drive down household bills by £300-a-year.
‘Sold a lie’
Conservative shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho previously said the public have been “sold a lie” by Labour that their energy bills will drop by that amount.
Baroness Morgan, the third leader of Wales this year, said: “Our publicly-owned renewable energy developer, Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru, is a long-term sustainable investment that puts net zero and the communities of Wales at the heart of the energy transition.
“While the previous UK government focused on fracking and fossil fuels – opposed by most communities and incompatible with our international obligations – we took positive action to ensure we deliver on our environmental commitments.
“Harvesting our wind and using it to produce power offers us, and the people of Wales, the ability to own the returns on what will be a significant investment.”
Lady Morgan was confirmed as leader of the Welsh Labour Party on July 24, but was officially sworn in as First Minister of Wales on August 6 after a vote in the Senedd.
She succeeded Vaughan Gething, who lasted fewer than 140 days as first minister, having presided over a turbulent period in office, beset by rows over donations and sacked ministers.
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Translation: we will level up Wales to the point it can benefit England, but still insuring it stays 50 years but England in every other regard.
Put simply, more 700 foot wind turbines and chains of unsightly pylons across our currently pure countryside. But, as Keir would say, “hats off to Wales, you are doing your little bit for the environment. Oh, I nearly forgot, we’ll also have green Port Talbot soon. Now I really must get back to London.”
More robbing of resources then, with little benefit to the locals. at least the rivers won’t run black this time . Now I don’t mind turbines, they look fine. Or being part of a solution. But it must benefit our energy bills more than those getting it in England or elsewhere. After all England has failed itself on green energy generation for 8 yrs minimum. So why should we suffer fools
Yeah, rape of the fair country once again
Action need to reflect the want. Lets see it in action.
Also be a good start to get greening up peoples homes in a competent way and one that keeps the con women and men out of the loop.
In what way will Cymru benefit Keir? Ask him that Eluned.
Starmer, like most of his cabal, is living in cloud-cuckoo land. Net Zero is an idiotic pipe dream that has the potential to bankrupt the UK, and will make no difference anyway. Wales, of course, is a perfect dumping ground for the unsightly infra-structure, and we’ll be left with the cleanup too. It will of course ‘take time’ to see the benefits: how much time? Mr Starmer doesn’t seem able to say: this is because neither he, nor that muppet Miliband, have any idea what they’re talking about. Meanwhile, our Senedd is now apparently focussing on the pressing problem of… Read more »
Yet another right-wing extremist word salad.
Last night 45%-/+ UK energy was wind. Aprox 30% this am (8.6GW). That is a lot of energy we are not burning fossil fuels for or making new glow sticks. That is less gas, less coal, less Nuke. Bit of a misrepresentation, coal is not being used of late and Nuke providing a base supply.
So nuclear power: the safe, clean, obvious solution to anyone objecting to fossil fuels, is not acceptable to you either? How odd.
You said pipe dream. Deflection noted. Is 45% greater than 0%? At the moment solar and wind is pumping out around 50% of UK energy. Nuke will still have a role for a while. But it has an order of magnitude thousands of years very bad legacy we need to stop.Hows it going at safe Fukushima and safe Chernobyl. How is safe three mile island. How is safe Windscale (the place where contractors use unsafe laptops and let in state actors and some really nasty stuff is stored). How is the EDF plant coming along we will be paying through… Read more »
Nuclear is a fossil fuel, Adrian. Uranium is dug out of the ground, just like coal.
Nuclear is “a future technology whose time has passed”.
Yes, it may employ and risk the health of hundreds but a solar economy employs tens of thousands for much less capital outlay per job.
The words you were looking for were “theft of resources”.
When Wales gets its fair share, I’ll be interested. We’re being exploited.
As per usual..
Captain Clark of Kent to First Mate Morgan,
tell Stoker Davies down in the boiler room to shovel harder…
If the labour party were remotely interested in creating a self sufficient energy source they would be investing in the Severn barrage and tidal lagoons that produce energy 100% of the time. Oh and thanks sir Keir I’ll be able to look out of the window and see turbines instead of coal tips
More core-periphery economics from Labour … and they call themselves “progressive”. Iesu mawr!
When we have all these turbines and acre after acre of solar panels buildings full of battery’s how exactly is all this going to be supplied to our homes? Is it through our current energy supplier who will be able to buy really cheap power and charge the user the difference. They don’t want to reduce their market share or lower profit margins, or are they going to be nice to us and pass on all the savings they will be making?.
I suggest you chose your supplier with due diligence, many being foreign owned have a different piper to listen to, not the Labour penny whistle.
Is this where Wales is covered in windfarms and pylons to supply England with electricity so it does not upset the english.
It’s very good of Starmer the No-Change Unionist to patronise us with another visit and advise us of our role in Great British Energy.
Pylons for us, Power for them! Make no mistake, that’s the Great bit!
I want an energy policy for Cymru. Fully insulated housing, reduced energy demand, micro-grids, buried cables, sustainable sources (solar, wind, tidal, in-flow), flexibility for limited export/import, fully mitigated environmental impact, a low-energy economy… Doesn’t seem much to ask.
Not grandiose, just cutting our cloth…
I find It incredible how £8.3 billion can be plucked out of thin air by Whitehall to exploit our natural resources & landscape when apparently there was no money left in the coffers to give Wales its fair share of HS2 funding.
As usual it’s more exploitation where Wales is regarded merely as a conduit that serves England thirst for water & energy aided & abetted by treacherous Welsh/UK Labour yes-men & women who are rewarded for their servitude & loyalty with golden handshakes and life peerages.
Just how God intended it, a marriage made in London three years ago…
Cymru meet your betrothed…
Horses for Courses etc…
Wales was an energy superpower with coal in the 19th and 20th centuries, now its one of the poorest areas in Europe. So I`m not holding my breath at this new Rape of the Fair Country, proposed by Starmer, the Pensioner Starver.