ED MILIBAND is a “walking, talking cost-of-living crisis”, according to shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho.
The senior MP — who will tomorrow unveil Tory plans for cheaper utilities — vowed to get her Labour arch-rival SACKED as gas and electricity costs rose again this week on his watch.
Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho[/caption]
Kemi Badenoch meets supporters as she arrives in Manchester for the Conservative party conference[/caption]
Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero[/caption]
Experts have warned that Red Ed, who promised to cut energy bills by up to £300 a year before the 2024 General Election, will only drive prices higher with his Net Zero obsession.
Already, £1billion has been spent this year switching off wind turbines when it got too blowy for the network to cope.
Other sources, such as gas-fired plants, then had to be paid to be used as a replacement. The shutdown has pushed household bills up by £15 a year.
In an interview with the Sun on Sunday, Ms Coutinho fumed: “Ed Miliband is a disaster.
“Every decision (he) has made in government is going to send people’s bills up.
“He promised people £300 off their bills, and so far they’re already £200 up. People are rightly furious.
“I don’t know what he’s on. He is a walking, talking cost-of-living crisis.
“I’m going to make it my mission in this parliament to get him sacked.”
She continues: “I think he can’t add up because if you look at what he’s doing, gas at the moment is about £55 a megawatt-hour.
“He said he’s willing to pay up to £117 for offshore wind this year, and then he talks about cutting people’s bills. You don’t need a calculator to see that is just total madness.”
The top Tory also slated Energy Secretary Mr Miliband for “signing up to 20-year contracts” for offshore wind, adding: “We’re going to be saddled with these incredibly high prices for decades.”
Ms Coutinho is the face of the Conservative Party’s scepticism over a move to Net Zero.
At their annual conference in Manchester tomorrow, she will outline proposals to cut bills by scrapping green levies.
She said: “The most important thing the country needs — and we’re unashamed about this — is lower energy bills.
“Our priority for energy policy going forward will be simple: Make electricity cheaper.
“It will be good for growth, it’s good for cost-of-living — something we know lots of families are still struggling with — and, most importantly, it will be good for the whole of the UK to have much cheaper energy bills.”
Levies funding environmental and social projects add around £140 to annual electricity bills and £50 to gas bills, says innovation agency Nesta.
It comes as the UK energy price cap rose again this week by two per cent, meaning the average household paying for gas and electricity by direct debit will see costs increase from £1,720 to £1,755 per year.
Ms Coutinho’s stance marks a much harder line on eco-policies as the Tories try to stave off Nigel Farage’s party.
Reform UK promised to scrap the Net Zero target and told wind and solar developers they will end green energy subsidies if they win power.
It has prompted Mr Miliband to liken the Tories to a “Reform tribute act”.
But Ms Coutinho said: “That’s absolute rubbish, If you look at Reform, they’ve got the economics of Jeremy Corbyn.”
She claimed there was a huge black hole in Reform’s spending plans, adding: “That simply isn’t going to work for a country where you’ve got interest rates high, inflation is high. We need to be bringing those things down. So we need to live within our means.”
Tories have pledged to scrap the restrictive Climate Change Act 2008 brought in by the last Labour government, and the target of Net Zero emissions by 2050 enshrined by Tory PM Theresa May in 2019.
Ms Coutinho said: “We’ve got new leadership now and both Kemi and I strongly feel that the biggest problem that this country faces is that we’ve got the highest industrial electricity prices in the world and the second highest domestic prices. Now that’s just not going to work for Britain.”
Tories would also abolish quango the Climate Change Committee, which advises the Government on Net Zero.
Ms Coutinho said: “For too long, energy policy has been in the hands of people who are unelected and unaccountable — and that’s just not right.”
And she has left the door open to fracking.
A ban was lifted by Liz Truss during her short tenure in Downing Street – but this was abandoned by her successor Rishi Sunak.
Ms Coutinho added: “We’re a small dense island and it can be very disruptive. So it shouldn’t be done to communities without their say so.”
The shadow cabinet member admitted people are frustrated the Tories have taken their time to come up with policies after their disastrous loss at last year’s General Election.
But she insisted: “At conference, you’ll see a lot more from us. This is the moment where we’ll start telling people all the results of our work, and be able to explain what our plan is.
“The difference between us and Labour and Reform is our plans are real, they’re fully funded, they can be delivered tomorrow.”
She promised the Tories will bring forward plans the public can trust, adding: “People have really lost faith in government to be able to do the things that they want it to do. So we need to rebuild that trust.”
Claire Coutinho speaks exclusively to the Sun on Sunday[/caption]
