Keir Starmer unveils green growth plan to counter Liz Truss’s tax cuts
Keir Starmer will pledge to deliver a new era of economic growth and permanently lower energy bills by turning the UK into an independent green “superpower” before 2030, through a massive expansion of wind and solar energy.
Announcing details of the plan exclusively to the Observer, the Labour leader says he will double the amount of onshore wind, triple solar and more than quadruple offshore wind power, “re-industrialising” the country to create a zero carbon, self-sufficient electricity system, by the end of this decade.
Starmer says the move – far more ambitious than any green policy advanced by the Tories and the most far-reaching of his leadership so far – would release the British people from the mercy of “dictators” such as Russian president Vladimir Putin over energy bills.
It would also, he says, cut hundreds of pounds off annual household energy bills “for good”, create up to half a million UK jobs, and make this country the first to have a zero-emission power system.
Labour’s new approach is unveiled as the government’s blueprint to boost economic growth through a sweeping programme of tax cuts – announced by Kwasi Kwarteng, the new chancellor, on Friday – encounters mounting criticism.
Yesterday thinktanks and leading economists said the Conservative plan would mainly help the richest and benefit the more prosperous south of England, rather than provide assistance to struggling households and parts of the country which are more deprived. It also spooked the financial markets.
In the hours after Kwarteng addressed MPs in the Commons, the pound slumped more than 3% against the dollar to levels last seen 37 years ago and the cost of government borrowing suffered its biggest one-day rise since 1991.
These initial
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