Ed Miliband’s ‘fantasy eco plans’ will create tens of thousands more jobs in China than in the UK, senior Tories claimed last night.
Labour’s Shadow Energy Security Secretary wants to triple solar power capacity in the UK as part of his ambitious plan to deliver zero-carbon electricity by 2030.
He wants solar farms to provide 50GW of energy by the end of the decade, up from 15.8GW earlier this year.
It will mean a huge increase in the number of the panels harnessing the sun’s rays – and more jobs in an industry that currently supports only 6,400 people.
But new analysis by the Conservatives suggests Labour’s clean power drive will be ‘made in China’, because its scale and speed means there will not be time to expand UK production to the required rate.
Labour has watered down Mr Miliband’s original pledge to borrow £28 billion a year to fund green initiatives – but it has retained his goal to achieve ‘clean power’ by 2030
Based on US Department of Energy estimates that each extra 1GW of production generates work for 2,000 more people, the Tories say Labour’s plan will create another 71,837 jobs.
And according to the International Energy Agency’s latest assessment, 80 per cent of all solar panel manufacturing is based in China.
So the Tories say Labour’s solar expansion will end up creating 57,470 jobs in China – and only 14,933 in the UK.
Last night Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told the Mail: ‘Labour aren’t content with destroying jobs in the North Sea oil industry by refusing licences. Now they want to ship them to China.
‘Their fantasy eco plans mean higher bills for families and making us reliant on China for decades – which our own National Security strategy identifies as the number one threat to our economy security.
‘Do not let virtue-signalling trump the national interest. Do not surrender this country’s light switch to Labour.’
But a Labour spokesman insisted: ‘This is more desperate Tory lies. After 14 years of failed Tory energy policy, jobs have gone overseas and our clean energy infrastructure has been imported from China and the rest of the world. Rishi Sunak has no plan to change it.
‘Labour’s plan means investment in 650,000 jobs of the future and creating Great British Energy. That’ll lower people’s bills with cheap, homegrown energy.
‘The only way to stop the Conservatives’ chaos and exporting of British jobs, is to vote for Labour on Thursday.’
It comes after Mr Miliband told the Guardian that a Labour government will fill a ‘vacuum of leadership’ to take the lead on global efforts to tackle climate change.
‘There is not a minute to waste in the drive for 2030 clean power and in the drive for climate action. The world is off track, Britain is off track and we intend to change that direction,’ he said.
Labour insists the plan will create 650,000 future jobs and lower bills (File photo)
It remains unclear how much Labour’s flagship pledge to deliver clean energy by 2030 will cost taxpayers.
Last week it emerged that Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones had admitted the £28billion a year the party previously earmarked for green investment would not be sufficient to decarbonise the power system.
‘No it’s tiny. Hundreds of billions of pounds we need,’ he told a meeting earlier this year in remarks that were seized on by the Tories.
However Mr Jones clarified that most of the money will come from the private sector, pointing to the money being put into nuclear power stations Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C by their private owners.
‘All these bits of kit which are owned by the private sector, in order to get to that net zero target will have to spend money and invest in their own businesses in order get there,’ he told LBC radio.
