A Reform UK councillor has slammed “net zero madness” on GB News as she delivered a damning tirade on Labour’s energy policy.

Laila Cunningham declared that Britain cannot “tax its economy to death and hope that wind turbines will help us later” as she and fellow panellist Ed Gemmell, leader of the Climate Party.

Ms Cunningham told GB News: “The cost of forcing an economy to run on expensive, unreliable power before that technology exists to make it cheap, is madness!”

While Mr Gemmell insisted that net zero supported Rachel Reeves’ drive to raise funds ahead of the Budget, claiming that a clear path towards green industrialisation is required.

“It’s encouraging businesses to set up shop here,” Ms Cunningham responded. “Businesses are leaving in droves.”

“We’ve got our own unicorns that are going to France that are going to America.

“We have the largest industrial energy cost in the world nine times out of America, and we’ve effectively industrialised our country.

“Yes, you might want renewable energy, but renewable energy now is too expensive to implement. You are taxing people to pay for it.”

“Total rubbish!” Mr Gemmell said, further emphasising the need for a clear, green strategy and encourage Britain to lead in tech and clean industry.

“You cannot have a leading tech centre, which is AI, which requires a huge amount of abundant, reliable, cheap energy which is right now under your plan won’t work,” Ms Cunningham hit back.

“Of course we should be leading in tech but people are leaving in droves.

“Young people are leaving in droves. And that’s because, like it or not, net zero is a huge financial burden on our industry, on our country, and on my energy bill.

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Hitting back, Mr Gemmel advised: “What we should be doing is to fund all that energy that we’re going to need for these tech sectors, which we need to grow.

“We should be drilling more on a dwindling supply, which is costing us twice as much as our renewable energy, and that’s the way we’re going to solve it.”

“Or should we be saying, actually, we’ve got to look at a new way of doing this. We’ve got to look to the future.

“We’ve got to be the people leading in this innovation. We are the people who’ve got to do it. Let’s put the money into that.

“And whether it’s tax breaks or tax rises to pay for it, which are tools taking different tools from different boxes, it’s those tools have got to be used to open up that can and get that working for Britain, not just platitudes about how to do it.”

But Ms Cunningham remained unconvinced with Mr Gemmell’s argument, she said: “The cost of forcing an economy to run on expensive, unreliable power before that technology exists to make it cheap is madness.

“Green infrastructure is paid for right now by the taxpayer through higher bills, higher borrowing and higher business costs.

“You can’t grow an economy by taxing it to death and hoping that wind turbines are going to help us later. No country has pulled that off.”

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