Rachel Reeves fails to commit to ￡28 billion Green plan
Sir Keir Starmer tonight officially dropped a pledge for ￡28 billion a year of green spending in a screeching U-turn.
The Labour leader confirmed the amount, central to the party's Green Prosperity Plan, will be drastically scaled back with ￡23.7 billion now set to be spent over five years.
The Tories had seized on the original figure as a key attack line in the run-up to the next general election.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed he doesn’t have a plan for Britain. The uncertainty about what a Labour government would do is a real risk to our country’s future.
“Labour’s pledge – in their own words – has a ￡28 billion price tag and now they have admitted there is no plan to pay for it. This will mean higher taxes for working people to fill Labour’s black hole.
“That’s why the choice this year is to stick with our plan that’s working, or go back to square one with Labour which would put our country’s future at risk.”
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Sir Keir said he did not want a "row about the size of a cheque" and blamed the Conservatives for a "very broken" economy.
The Labour leader insisted the party in power would still retain its mission to achieve clean power by 2030.
Shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband, who has spearheaded Labour's green policies, publicly rowed in behind Sir Keir.
Mr Miliband said: "Labour will be fighting the election with a world-leading agenda on climate and energy with every single individual policy already announced now confirmed for the manifesto: Great British Energy, a National Wealth Fund, a Warm Homes Plan, a British Jobs Bonus, a Local Power Plan and no new oil and gas licences as well as our 2030 clean power mission."
Labour will hope the move will end speculation about the scale of the plan, as well as neutralising Tory attacks.
Sir Keir's party last year watered down the pledge by saying the spending target, funded by borrowing, would be met in the second half of a first parliament rather than immediately.
Labour had also insisted it would be subject to its fiscal rules, which include getting debt falling as a percentage of GDP.
Confusion over the future of the policy had mounted in recent weeks as some senior figures refused to refer to the ￡28 billion a year figure, while Sir Keir continued to do so as recently as Tuesday.
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But Labour has come under criticism from green campaigners and trade unions over the move.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "If Labour keep getting scared off by Tory attacks, they will end up outsourcing their policy making to the Conservatives."
Meanwhile, Greenpeace UK's co-executive director Areeba Hami accused Sir Keir of having "caved like a house of cards in the wind".
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