Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has launched a stinging rebuke against Nigel Farage and Reform UK, accusing the party leader of spreading “nonsense and lies” about the Government’s commitment to net zero and its impact on the UK steel industry.
In a sharply worded intervention ahead of next month’s local elections, Mr Miliband warned that abandoning Britain’s net zero ambitions would not only jeopardise efforts to tackle climate change but also forfeit the country’s potential to lead in the clean energy industries of the future.
Writing in The Observer, the former Labour leader said the current economic crisis in the steel industry cannot be blamed on climate policy, pointing instead to the UK’s ongoing reliance on volatile global fossil fuel markets. He said: “Our exposure to fossil fuels meant that, as those markets went into meltdown and prices rocketed, family, business and public finances were devastated. The cost of living impacts caused back then still stalk families today.”
The comments came in response to accusations by Mr Farage, who claimed the Government’s drive toward net zero had made it harder to secure essential coal for British Steel’s blast furnaces, particularly at its Scunthorpe plant. Last week, ministers announced plans to take temporary control of the company to prevent plant closures and mass redundancies, following the collapse of talks with its Chinese owners, Jingye.
Mr Farage, who has repeatedly referred to Mr Miliband as “Red Ed”, has derided the UK’s net zero policy as “lunacy”, accusing the Government of destroying British industry by prioritising carbon cuts over energy security. Speaking at a campaign event, he said: “We’re living through a period of net-zero lunacy… now being followed by Red Ed, the high priest of this madness, who is determined to cover our agricultural land with Chinese slave-labour-made solar farms and despoil as much of our coastline as possible.”
The Reform UK leader has also called for the UK to become “self-sufficient in oil and gas”, an idea dismissed by environmental groups who argue that the North Sea is an ageing and declining resource, costly to exploit and insufficient to meet long-term demand.
Mr Miliband was unequivocal in his response, accusing both Reform and the Conservatives of concocting falsehoods to pursue their ideological agendas. “They will make up any old nonsense and lies,” he said. “Breaking free from fossil fuels is not just about climate—it’s about our national security and energy sovereignty.”
The Cumbrian coal mine, which critics claim could have been used to supply British Steel, was dismissed by the Government as irrelevant to current production needs. The mine would not produce the specialist coal required for the Scunthorpe site, a point echoed by industry experts.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to reinforce his Government’s green energy commitments this week at an International Energy Agency conference in London. His administration has made clean power a cornerstone of its industrial strategy.
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Meanwhile, Mr Farage told The Sun on Sunday that net zero could become “the new Brexit”, suggesting the policy could provoke similar public discontent. “This could be the next Brexit – where Parliament is so hopelessly out of touch with the country,” he claimed.
New Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has also cast doubt on the net zero by 2050 commitment, describing it as “impossible” to achieve without significantly lowering living standards or risking economic collapse.
With local elections fast approaching, Labour has intensified its attacks on Reform UK amid a surge in support for the right-wing party. Reform returned five MPs in last year’s general election and now holds four seats in the Commons. On 1st May, voters across 23 local authorities in England will head to the polls, with 1,641 council seats up for grabs—a crucial test of Reform’s growing appeal.
