© CHRIS J RATCLIFFE/POOL/EPA-EFE/S UK energy secretary Ed Miliband has hit back at the growing anti net zero movement being pushed by Reform, saying they are out of touch with voters.
Speaking at the Global Offshore Wind 2025 conference in London, he said: “My impression is that the anti net zero brigade are going down a blind alley. The public actually believes that this is the right thing for the country by a significant majority.”
The UK’s net-zero ambitions have long benefitted from a consensus between the Labour and Conservative parties. However, recent months have seen cracks begin to form.
First, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch came out and warned that the UK reaching net zero by 2050, a goal set out under the previous Conservative government, was “impossible”.
She said that current policies were not cutting emissions and only driving up the cost of energy.
However, Badenoch did not go so far as to condemn net-zero ambitions outright – just that the current date and methods needed to be re-evaluated.
The Reform party has proven far more sceptical.
Since finding success in a series of English council elections, the effect its policies could have on the renewable energy sector has raised alarm bells.
In particular, Luke Campbell won the mayorship in Hull and East Yorkshire – several major clean energy projects are based across his remit in the Humber, including Siemens Gamesa’s wind turbine blade factory, the Humber Zero project and the Viking carbon capture and storage scheme.
Miliband added: “When you look at what the Siemens factory has done for the people employed there, when you look at the opportunities there are for local people in terms of employment, people definitely want that to go ahead.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage has branded net zero as “complete and utter madness”, with deputy leader Richard Tice vowing to block renewable energy projects.
It appears that Farage is ready to make net zero a key battleground to expand on his party’s success, calling the issue the “next Brexit”.
But Miliband said the best way to counter the “minority that believe that, somehow, we should turn the clock back and abandon our clean energy ambitions”, is to show delivery.
“Show delivery on the ground, show what it means for energy security, which is constantly being reinforced by global events,” he said.
“I believe that there is a sensible argument to be made, which is we need to get off expensive, insecure fossil fuels from markets we don’t control [and] onto clean energy we do control – it’s a winning argument.”
