Labour left call U-turn on green investment ‘environmentally irresponsible and ‘strategically incompetent’ – UK politics live | Politics

The Conservative party issued their initial response to the news that Labour is formally dropping £28bn as the annual arget for its green investment spending last night.

Having attacked Labour obsessively for having the target in recent weeks, arguing that it would have to be funded by higher borrowing or higher taxes, or both, the Tories could embrace the U-turn and argue that it shows Keir Starmer is unreliable.

Alternatively, they could argue that in practice the target has not been dropped because Labour is still firmly committed to clean energy goals that require spending on that scale.

But, at the risk of causing some confusion, CCHQ is trying to run both lines of attack. Its new release described the move as an “attempted £28bn U-turn” and included this quote from Laura Trott, chief secretary to the Treasury.

This is a serious moment which confirms Labour have no plan for the UK, creating uncertainty for business and our economy. On the day that Labour are finalising their manifesto, Keir Starmer is torpedoing what he has claimed to be his central economic policy purely for short-term campaigning reasons.

He must explain how he can keep the £28bn spending when he is finally admitting he doesn’t have a plan to pay for it.

This black hole will inevitably mean thousands of pounds in higher taxes for working people. That’s why Labour will take Britain back to square one.

In an explanatory note in the news release, the Tories said “Labour remain committed to their ‘Green Prosperity’ policy, which Labour have costed at £28bn a year”.

Chris Philp, the policing minister, has defended Rishi Sunak’s transgender jibe after the father of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey called on the prime minister to apologise. Eleni Courea has the story here.

The waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has fallen for the third month in a row, PA Media reports.

An estimated 7.60 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of December, relating to 6.37 million patients, down slightly from 7.61 million treatments and 6.39 million patients at the end of November, NHS England said.

Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, has criticised the Labour move on the grounds that the UK needs more investment, not less. She said:

The retreat from Labour’s £28bn green investment pledge will confirm workers’ scepticism of the endless promises of jam tomorrow and it will be ‘alright on the night’ rhetoric on the green transition.

If different choices aren’t made Britain will again lag behind other nations. The German government investment bank already has in its funds equivalent to 15% of German GDP.

The Labour movement has to stand up to the Conservatives’ false accusations of fiscal irresponsibility. There is a catastrophic crisis of investment in Britain’s economic infrastructure. Britain needs more not less investment.

The SNP claims Labour’s U-turn will damage the Scottish economy. This is from Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s leader at Westminster.

Keir Starmer’s damaging decision to cut energy investment will destroy Scottish jobs, harm economic growth and hit families in the pocket by keeping energy bills high.

It’s a weak and short-sighted U-turn, which shows Westminster is incapable of delivering the investment Scotland needs to compete in the global green energy gold rush and secure strong economic growth.

As our partners and allies across the world press ahead with investment to attract jobs and secure economic and energy security, the UK has turned away. It’s as depressing as it is predictable.

The Green party has described the Labour U-turn as a “massive backwards step”. This is from Carla Denyer, the party’s co-leader.

This is a massive backward step – for the climate, for the economy and for good quality jobs. Both the security of our planet for future generations and the UK’s future prosperity is dependent on greening our economy and that requires large scale investment.

Labour have chosen to wear their fiscal rules as a millstone around their neck. A different approach through tax reforms, in particular by introducing a wealth tax on the super-rich, could help pay for the green transition. There is more than enough money in the economy to pay for this. Indeed, the Green party would go further and faster, investing at least double what Labour originally pledged, so we can turbo charge the transition to a green economy.

Good morning. It will come as no surprise to anyone who has been following Westminster news in recent weeks, particularly if they have been reading the Guardian, to learn that Labour is no longer committed to spending £28bn a year on its green investment plan. The soft U-turn, the informal abandonment of the policy as a firm commitment, happened some time ago. But the Tory attacks on the policy, and today we are expecting a proper, hard, bells-and-whistles U-turn – public confirmation that the £28bn target has been consigned to the policy dustbin.

Kiran Stacey and Pippa Crerar broke the news last night.

As they explain, it’s a gamble. The case for getting rid of it is that it allowed the Tories to claim Labour would have to put up taxes to fund it, perhaps reviving the almost primordial fear felt by the British electorate that a Labour government would cost people more. With £28bn off the table, it is harder what policies the Conservatives would attack during an election campaign.

But, if the U-turn inoculates Labour against the “higher taxes” attack, it validates the other key message coming out of CCHQ, which is that you can’t trust Keir Starmer on anything because he keeps changing his mind.

It also makes it harder for Labour to argue that it is offering a distinctive alternative policy at the election because one of its main economic policies has, in effect, been redrafted at the behest of CCHQ.

This latter point is one that Starmer’s critics on the left – both within the Labour party, and outside it – have been making vigorously this morning. There are strong statements to this effect from the SNP, the Green party, Unite and Momentum, but let’s start with the Labour MP Barry Gardiner, who served as shadow climage change minister under Jeremy Corbyn. This is what he told the Today programme when he was asked for his reaction to the U-turn.

It’s economically illiterate, it’s environmentally irresponsible and it’s politically jejune.

Gardiner said he could understand why Labour wanted to minimise the risk of its policies being attacked. But he went on:

If you make (your manifesto) so bland, if you stand for nothing, then the opposition and government will actually write your policies for you, they will say ‘You see, Labour’s not telling you what they’re going to do, it’s going to be this it’s going to be that’, and they can paint their own picture. So I think politically, it’s strategically incompetent.

I will post more reaction shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: NHS England publishes hospital waiting time figures.

9.30am: The ONS publishes homicide figures for England and Wales.

Morning: Rishi Sunak is on a visit to Cornwall where he is expected to speak to the media.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Noon: Humza Yousaf takes first minister’s questions at Holyrood.

Afternoon: Keir Starmer is expected to make an announcement confirming the £28bn green investment plan U-turn.

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