A top Tory has laid into Ed Miliband’s latest green energy policy to permanently ban fracking, claiming that it “makes no sense”.

Speaking on the Camilla Tominey Show, the Shadow Energy Secretary ripped up the Labour bigwig’s backing for a fracking ban after Labour claimed that the move would cut Britons’ energy bills.

“I don’t think it should be imposed on communities, and I think the priority has to be the North Sea,” Claire Coutinho told Camilla, when asked about the Tories’ policy on the matter.

“But what we’ve said when it comes to gas is that, yes, there would be more gas in the system than under Ed’s approach if it makes people’s bills lower.”

“We know at the moment, gas without a carbon tax is £55. He’s signing up to a new wind auction. He said he’s willing to pay up to £117 for 20-year fixed contracts for offshore wind.

“What he hasn’t explained to anyone is what are these higher prices which will be locked in for decades? How on earth can that cut bills?

“It simply doesn’t make sense. So our priority for energy is to use what’s cheap.

“We’ve got to bring the cost of electricity down, and the priority has to be to do that as quickly as possible.”

British households are set to see energy bills rise by £100 from April as the costs of the nation’s net zero infrastructure programme filter through to consumers, energy consultancy Cornwall Insight warned earlier this week.

The increase stems from large-scale green transition projects demanding heavy investment from the Government.

These requirements range from connecting up new wind and solar farms to the grid, building Sizewell C nuclear power station in Suffolk, as well as upgrading ageing gas distribution networks.

Additionally, Ed Miliband has recently come under fire for his energy deal with China, increasing economic ties with Beijing, which has proved controversial.

LATEST ON LABOUR’S NET ZERO PLAN:

• WATCH: Protesters BOO Ed Miliband as Richard Tice blasts ‘con’ net zero policy
• Energy bills are ‘going to be 20% higher’ despite ‘prices halving’ as households paying extra £300 a year
• Net Zero slammed as target set to ‘add £100 to energy bills from April’

“Ed went to Beijing, and unlike all of the times that I did deals with other countries, he has not published the full text of what was agreed,” Ms Coutinho said.

“And that is something which I think is incredibly worrying, this air of sort of secrecy around the Labour Party’s dealings with China.”

“I’ve spoken again very publicly, multiple times, about the worry that we are building a reliance on China when it comes to our energy system, whether it’s solar panels or critical minerals or batteries or cables.

“We’ve just seen a position where Europe had to wean itself off Russian oil and gas. We can’t then become dependent on China for all of those things.

“So yes, we have to care very deeply.

“It’s one of the things, the reasons I’m such a big advocate of nuclear power, because actually we can own and build a lot of the supply chain here.”

At the Labour Party Conference, the energy secretary lauded the Government’s move to use solar power as a “cheap and quick way” for Britons to generate their own energy, cutting bills “by hundreds of pounds a year”.

Mr Miliband further committed the Government to “pursuing clean power by 2030 and bringing the benefits to families as quickly as possible to help with the pressures of affordability that so many face”.

Our Standards:
The GB News Editorial Charter