Labour defends Great British Energy plan amid concern over funding
‘It’s going to take time’ for GB Energy to start making money, says Ed Miliband
Energy secretary Ed Miliband has said “it’s going to take time” for GB Energy to start making money.
Legislation to establish the state-owned energy company needs to go through the House of Commons, and the government has set aside £8.3bn to invest in new windfarms and solar projects, which must get built before GB Energy can start generating a return, he told BBC Breakfast.
“Within the lifetime of this parliament it will start generating returns,” he said.
Miliband said:
Within a couple of years, as we build new onshore wind, new solar, we’ll start to see the effect on bills, but there are lots of things going on here. So our exposure to gas prices, which are set internationally, is something I don’t control.
In a sense, the whole point of what I’m saying is we’ve got to get off that lack of control where dictators like [Vladimir] Putin control the fossil fuel market, because I can’t promise you what’s going to happen to gas prices.
But I can say that, if we drive to clean, homegrown British energy, we will have much more control over what happens to bills.”
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“The days of government ministers waging culture wars against civil servants are over,” chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, has said.
Responding to a question on civil service pay awards, he said:
Yesterday I met the civil service unions together with my colleague, the new minister [Georgia Gould]. We had a very positive discussion covering a whole range of issues.
I made it clear that the days of government ministers waging culture wars against civil servants are over. Instead, we want a civil service that’s motivated, valued and helps the government deliver its priorities. And on this specific issue of pay, the government will have more to say on civil service pay before the summer recess.”
Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, Mary Glindon, said the number of pay bargaining units is generating “unfair pay disparities between people doing near-identical jobs in different government offices” and asked whether pay bargaining could be consolidated across the civil service.
McFadden replied:
We do value civil servants, and of course we want all public servants to be properly and fairly rewarded, and, like any public expenditure, what’s spent on pay has to be balanced against other priorities and fair to taxpayers as a whole.”
He added:
Departments do have flexibility on pay, they can direct pay towards the needs of their own workforces.”
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Robert Jenrick’s campaign manager, Danny Kruger, will this morning submit his Conservative party leadership nomination to Bob Blackman.
The form includes Jenrick’s proposer, seconder, and eight supporting MPs, Jenrick’s campaign team said.
Kruger said:
To have any path back to government we must win back those voters we have lost, across the board but particularly to Reform. At the same time we have to bring our party together, united behind one set of coherent Conservative principles.
The British people need to be convinced that we are the most responsible and competent party of government for us to have any chance of winning in 2029, especially when we know Labour are set to fail on so many important issues for our country.
Rob Jenrick will do that. He has the energy, temperament and policy agenda to take on our rivals and lead us back to power in five years.”
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