What’s your back! Ed Miliband will make Rachel Reeves’ position even more untenable (Image: Getty)
Because Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who claims to be her friend, is working flat out on a plan that will shrink the UK economy rather than make it grow. It’s a knife between the shoulder blades for Reeves.
Which is the last thing she needs as .
The bond vigilantes are circling, waiting to punish Reeves for her lunatic Budget move to hike taxes by £40billion and borrow another £30billion.
She’s now on course to break her own fiscal rules which could force her to hike taxes or cut spending in an emergency spring Budget.
Reeves has made , and squandered billions of taxpayers money in the process. But it doesn’t help that Miliband is beavering away in the background, inflicting further damage on the UK.
Within days of the July election, .
This is a crazy thing to do. It will drive up domestic energy bills and leave the UK exposed to the next energy shock. .
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Even Labour-backing unions were up in revolt as this will destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs, particularly in oil hubs like Aberdeen.
It didn’t stop Red Ed though. Nothing will, unless PM gets rid, as he should.
Miliband’s net zero charge is ill-timed and reckless. He thinks he’s setting an example to the world, by driving fossil fuels out of our energy mix.
But the world isn’t listening.
Every global leader from president-elect downwards is exploiting their oil and gas reserves to the max.
But we’re mothballing ours.
And we’re the last country in the world that should be doing this.
The UK has made huge strides in reducing its greenhouse gas admissions. They’ve dropped an impressive 42% since 1990 and are now roughly just 1% of the global total.
Unfortunately, our energy bills are the highest in the world.
Businesses pay almost four times as much for electricity as they do in the US. We simply cannot compete.
Our manufacturing sector has been ravaged as companies outsource production to countries with cheaper power.
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UK households pay three times as much money for domestic energy as the Americans.
Today, under the price cap the average home pays £1,738 for gas and electricity. In the US, we’d pay just £580.
That would hand every household an extra £1,158 a year in spending money. Imagine the economic boost.
Miliband is right to say we need to boost domestic energy production. We have massive offshore wind resources.
But to shutter our remaining oil and gas output before we’ve got there is madness.
I repeat, no other country is doing this.
It won’t do anything to slow climate change either. We’ll still use a huge amount of oil and gas, the only difference is we’ll import it from abroad.
That makes other countries richer, and the UK even poorer.
Miliband’s plan to spend £8billion on a pointless energy quango and £22billion on unproven carbon capture technology will only add to the misery.
If Reeves wants to cut government spending, she could start with those two white elephants. If Miliband resigns in protest, she should treat that as a double win.
While he’s Energy Secretary, Reeves doesn’t stand a chance. Nor do the rest of us.