live_tv
Livestream Starting Soon
00
Hours
:
00
Minutes
:
00
Seconds
Up next in 10
WATCH: Labour accused by top Tory of 'pushing through laws that people did not vote for'
Dec 11, 2025
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has been accused of "leading Britons down the garden path" with his current plans to achieve net zero.Speaking to GB News, Shadow Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho said the current policy is "making the country poorer", vowing to "reverse all net zero legislation".FULL STORY HERE.
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
It's understandable, isn't it, that people get a bit confused as to where each party is on this
0:05
I mean, it's not very long ago the Conservatives changed their logo to a tree
0:09
and had the slogan of, you know, vote blue, go green. And now what? Are you against net zero full out or are you just concerned about the pace of it
0:22
No, we've said we would reverse net zero legislation because the problem is it's making the country poorer
0:28
And yes, you're right. My party has obviously had different views on this over the years
0:33
When I came in as Energy Secretary, the first thing that I did was start a net zero reset
0:37
because we weren't being honest about the costs. And actually what this NISO report does, and I think it's very important that people understand
0:45
is for the first time show that a rushed pathway to net zero, as the Labour Party want to do
0:51
is going to add enormous amounts of costs to our energy system
0:55
£350 billion is their middle scenario. And the reason that's important is that's a £500 hit to households a year
1:04
It's equivalent to 0.4% of GDP. And it means we will have uncompetitive energy prices for the next 25 years
1:13
We simply can't afford to do that. And this has been the crux of our argument and why we and Kemi and me have changed the party's position
1:21
We cannot afford to de-industrialise. industrialise. We cannot afford to miss out on the growth, for example, of AI. We cannot afford
1:28
for our people's living standards to continue to suffer. And the other thing which I think is
1:34
simply absurd is if you are someone who wants to see the country move to electrification, that's
1:40
one of the other key objectives of Net Zero, people move to electric home heatings and electrics for
1:45
their cars you doing that at the same time as making electricity incredibly expensive It is simply two things pulling in the wrong direction And Ed Miliband I afraid with his promises of cutting people bills by has been shown to just be leading
2:00
people up the garden path. He should do a true costing of his plan so people can really see
2:05
what Labour's plans mean for their bills. And just before we let you go this morning
2:09
just wanted to ask you about the Birmingham bin strikes because it's now been nine months
2:13
since the all-out strike started, and it's been revealed now that the council there is paying triple
2:20
in order to outsource the collections of the bins there. What needs to be done to bring this to an end
2:28
Does the government need to intervene? Well, I hope they do, because this has been a complete nightmare from residents
2:35
and we know that Birmingham has had so many problems with the council and the way that it's run things for people
2:41
and, you know, what's it like for residents when you've got rubbish in the streets
2:44
It's absolutely horrible. So, yes, I do hope the government steps in and sorts this out
2:48
And I also think we need to look at some of the equal pay legislation
2:53
which has got these councils into so much trouble as well. One of my other roles is the qualities minister
2:58
and I think we need to make sure that people can be fairly paid but not in a way that's bankrupting councils
3:03
But there's a problem, isn't there, because you criticise the government when they do settle with strikers
3:09
but now you're criticising them because, well, certainly the council hasn't settled with strikers
3:15
So which is it? Well, I've never criticised the government for getting involved
3:21
but I think the settlements have to be fair and you'll have seen in both my comments, I think they need to be fair to residents and service users
3:29
and actually what the government did last year was an enormous pay rise, 29
3:33
without any requests for patients. So I think it is absolutely right that where government gets involved to do these things
3:40
they're looking after patients and residents first. Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho, thank you very much for joining us this morning on GB News Breakfast
#Government
#news
#Politics
#Public Policy