By Paul Homewood
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It sounds like it is the SNP who have really rumbled Starmer’s Great British Energy sham:
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LABOUR’S plans for a “home-grown energy company” have unravelled spectacularly after Keir Starmer was forced to admit Great British Energy was “not an energy company”.
The SNP have branded the flagship pledge a “sham” after Starmer dramatically scaled back Labour’s plans during a visit to Scotland on Friday.
Speaking to BBC Good Morning Scotland, Starmer admitted the publicly-owned company would be an “investment vehicle” to pump money into the private sector.
He said: “It’d be an investment vehicle, not an energy company, it’s an investment vehicle in the energy of the future.
“The money going into it would be public money but used to trigger private investment alongside it.”
The Labour leader said he expected it to be profitable and that it would create jobs.
Challenged on whether Labour’s plans to issue no new oil and gas licences and extend the windfall tax on energy giants could lead to job losses, Starmer said: “No, I do reject that analysis, in fact I’m absolutely convinced that the transition can bring more jobs to Scotland and those will last for decades.”
He insisted that oil and gas would “be part of the mix for decades to come” and that would not be “turning off the pipes”.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said: “This interview showed Keir Starmer is utterly clueless about the Scottish energy industry and his only Scottish policy has completely unravelled.
“His damaging plans for so-called ‘GB Energy’ are a sham.
“Starmer has been forced to admit it isn’t an energy company, it won’t produce or sell energy – and it will rely on the same private investment that his policies are putting at risk.”
Flynn , who is the SNP candidate in Aberdeen South, said that industry experts had predicted Labour’s plans could “destroy 100,000 Scottish jobs and deter billions of pounds in investment”.
The Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce is among industry leaders who have warned against Labour’s plans to increase the windfall tax on energy firms – who posted record profits due to the war in Ukraine.
Earlier this year, the body said Labour’s plans to hike the tax up to 78% and extend it until 2029 would result in “redundancies on a scale not seen in this country since the pit closures of the 1980s”.
Flynn added: “It’s no wonder Starmer has given up campaigning in the north east of Scotland when he knows his plans are so damaging and unpopular.”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/labours-gb-energy-plan-branded-103314068.html
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GBE will initially be capitalised at just £8.3 billion, and the extra revenue available from the North Sea windfall tax will be minimal, as Labour only plan to raise it from 75% to 78%, given that global oil prices have been fallen significantly since their 2022 peak. Even assuming Labour’s levy does no reduce investment and output, the proposed increase in the Energy Profits Levy from 75% to 78% will only yield an extra hundred million or so a year. (OBR currently forecasts £9 billion total revenue from the EPL over the next five years.
The SNP are therefore perfectly correct in describing Starmer’s farce as a sham. If it relies just on the extra windfall tax, as he claims, it won’t have enough money to make the slightest difference. And even if Labour borrow more money, which is more than likely, a capitalisation of £8 billion still will barely scratch the surface.
And none of this addresses the real issue – that whether the government or private sector builds wind and solar farms, their electricity is still more expensive than gas, and still needs backing up with dispatchable power.
As for Miliband’s grand hopes of £28 billion a year to spray around on wind farms, insulation, carbon capture and grid infrastructure, they have gone up in smoke. As for his hopes of nationalising the big energy companies, that was always a non-starter.
I think the take home message of all of this is that Starmer’s announcement today is simply a worthless sop to Miliband and the far left greens in the party. Without it, Miliband would probably resigned in a fit of pique.
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Author: Paul Homewood
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