Kemi Badenoch will today launch an “energy resilience strategy” and denounce Labour’s pursuit of net zero carbon emissions for threatening Britain’s national security and leaving the country exposed at times of crisis.The Conservatives claim Energy Security Secretary Ed Miliband’s policies will result in the UK shutting down oil and gas production while importing more from Norway. The party says Norway last year drilled 49 exploration wells while “Britain drilled zero for the first time since 1964”. The Tories are concerned by “increasing Britain’s dependence on Chinese energy technology” and warn the “war in Iran will not be the last crisis of this kind”.
Mrs Badenoch’s party will today commit to end the Energy Profits Levy, scrap the ban on new oil and gas licences, and “end all net zero mandates strangling the sector”. The party pledges to “make electricity cheap” and insists its plan would “cut electricity bills by 20%, or £165 for the average household”.
A Badenoch Government would also “double down on secure nuclear power”. It says that while “wind and solar power make us dangerously reliant on Chinese supply chains for cables, batteries, and critical minerals”, fuel for nuclear plants is “imported from our allies in Australia and Canada, then enriched here in Britain”.
A further pledge is to “stop the deindustrialisation of Britain”, with the Tories warning: “Britain lost a third of its oil refineries last year and we have completely lost our ability to make fertiliser or explosives from scratch in Britain – two things vital in the event of conflict – because of sky-high energy prices and the carbon tax”.
