Scottish Tory MP claims Borders 'under attack' from wind farms
John Lamont, MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk raised the issue of the Labour Government's net zero approach during Prime Minister's Questions, where he was rebuked by Keir Starmer.
He blamed Energy Secretary Ed Miliband for pursuing policies which had resulted in a proliferation of planning bids to Scottish Borders Council for solar farms, pylons and wind farms which were 'scarring' the region's landscape.
READ MORE: Keir Starmer called out for 'disgusting' jibe at Welsh MP during PMQs
But in response the Prime Minister dismissed his view as representing 'further evidence of how far his party has fallen'.
Lamont said: 'People are disgusted by the energy secretary's obsessive pursuit of Net Zero at any cost.
'The Scottish Borders is under attack with solar farms beside towns, massive wind farms and now mega pylons scarring unspoiled landscapes.
'Nobody sensible supports his crazed, crank policies which will put jobs at risk and rip up farm land.
'So when will be prime minister step in and stop the energy secretary throwing taxpayers money at this nonsense?'
READ MORE: Anas Sarwar backs UK Government's immigration plans amid 'Enoch Powell' row
Starmer responded: 'Only a few years ago dealing with the climate challenge was a shared endeavour across this House.
'This is yet further evidence of how far his party has fallen that they cannot see the significance and importance of tackling one of the major challenges of our time.
'I think we should rise to that challenge and not be defeatist about it.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
36 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Why Britain must not recognise Palestine
The West Bank was never taken from the Palestinians. When Israel conquered the territory in 1967 it was from the Jordanians, who had occupied it since 1948 before trying their luck at a genocide of the Jews. Regardless, if Jerusalem gave up the land in return for peace, it would make Israel just nine miles wide at its centre. Known as the 'Hadera-Gadera rectangle', that narrow waist holds half the population and much of the country's vital infrastructure, including Tel Aviv. A new Palestinian state would lie just over the border. After October 7, would you do it? The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, is famously incompetent, and is currently enjoying the 20th year of the four-year term to which he was elected in 2005. He presides over a system of corruption and brutality; he holds a PhD in Holocaust revisionism from a Moscow university; and he offers cash incentives to those convicted of terror offences, with higher payments awarded for more serious crimes. Fancy the odds? When Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, it was in the naive belief that, from then on, even a single rocket from the Strip would meet with international condemnation, since the settlements and 'occupation' were no more. So that worked out well. A two-state solution would see the same policy applied on the West Bank. What could possibly go wrong? Sir Keir Starmer presumably thinks it's a great idea, because in nine days' time, Britain will join France and the Saudis in New York in talks about recognising a state of Palestine. Far easier to gamble with the lives of someone else's children than your own, I suppose. This would form the natural culmination of Britain's escalating hostility towards our ally, as it battles to defeat the jihadi group that carried out that orgy of butchery, mutilation and rape two years ago and has vowed to do the same again. Hostages are still in the catacombs. Yet Sir Keir dreams of a state of Palestine. War is hell. Israel – which neither wanted it nor started it – evacuates civilians before attacks and provides them with aid. Yet in Parliament last week, amid nods from MPs who have never known the inside of a bomb shelter, the Prime Minister branded Israel 'appalling'. As ever, Starmer's petty politicking blinds him to his own moral bankruptcy. Unilaterally recognising a state of Palestine is a contemptuous proposal. Dismissing Israel's existential security concerns is insult enough, but providing a reward for October 7 creates awful incentives for the future. Worse still, perhaps, is the narrative it would create. Britain's official policy would be to blame Israel for the lack of a Palestinian state, when the historical truth is the opposite. The Palestinians were first offered self-determination in 1947, but rejected it in favour of attempted genocide. They were offered it again during the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, but derailed it with a spate of suicide bombs that claimed the lives of many Israelis. In 2000, at Camp David, they were offered 96 per cent of the West Bank but turned it down. In 2008, prime minister Ehud Olmert offered 94 per cent of the territory with land swaps for the remainder, East Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital, and the Old City turned over to international control. Again, Abbas rejected it. Why? Because the true problem is the very existence of a Jewish country, which is seen as a rebuke by some to Arab honour. The Palestinians don't want a state alongside Israel. They want a state instead of it. This is what Britain would be supporting.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Jeremy Corbyn criticises Starmer's ‘island of strangers' speech at festival
Jeremy Corbyn has criticised Sir Keir Starmer for using the phrase 'island of strangers' in a major immigration announcement. The former Labour leader, now an independent MP after he lost the party whip, publicly challenged the Prime Minister's language on Friday. Speaking at the Wide Awake Festival in Brockwell Park, south London, Mr Corbyn said: 'Let's hear no more of this nonsense spoken by some about this being a country of strangers. 'Let's hear no more of the repetition of what the wretched Enoch Powell said when I was a young person in the 1960s. 'Our community, our strength, our joy, our lives, our hope is our diversity, is our different backgrounds.' He added: 'That's what makes London a very special place.' Sir Keir, Mr Corbyn's successor as Labour leader, suggested the UK risked becoming an 'island of strangers' if efforts to tackle migration and integration were not stepped up. Critics compared the language with that of the Conservative politician Enoch Powell, who in an inflammatory address in 1968 known as the 'rivers of blood' speech, claimed that white British people would become 'strangers in their own country' in the future. Elsewhere in his speech on the stage, Mr Corbyn called for an end to all British arms sales to Israel, and urged those attending the festival to join anti-war rallies. He said: 'This country, Britain, has supplied weapons and parts for the F-35 jets that are used to bomb Gaza. 'So when we have the demonstrations in support of the Palestine people – please be there, raise your voice. It matters by giving inspiration to those people going through the most ghastly times of their lives.' In what appeared to be a further broadside at his former colleagues in the Labour Government, Mr Corbyn suggested ministers should hike taxes on the very rich. 'You can't achieve equality and justice if you extol the virtues of billionaires and do nothing about taking money off them to pay for the decent services for the many,' he said. Elsewhere at the festival, Irish rap trio Kneecap performed just days after one of their members was charged with a terror offence. Liam O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged over the alleged display of a Hezbollah flag at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, in November last year, the Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday. The Wide Awake Festival is one of several taking place in Brockwell Park over the next few weeks. Some local residents are unhappy with the damage the events cause to the park, and the large area of the green open space they take up over the course of a month. They successfully brought legal action against Lambeth Council over the use of parts of the park for the festivals, in a challenge which claimed the authority had bypassed the full planning process. The High Court ruled the council had acted 'irrationally', but the events have continued despite this, after Lambeth received fresh a planning application.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
NHS set for boost of up to £30bn as other budgets feel squeeze
The NHS is expected to receive a funding boost of up to £30 billion in the spending review next week at the expense of other public services. The Department of Health is set to be handed a 2.8% annual increase in its day-to-day budget over a three-year period. The cash injection, which amounts to a rise of about £30 billion by 2028, or £17 billion in real terms, will see other areas including police and councils squeezed, The Times newspaper reported. Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to ensure that by the next election 92% of patients in England waiting for planned treatment are seen within 18 weeks of being referred. Latest NHS data suggests around 60% of people are currently seen in this time and figures released last month showed the overall number of patients on waiting lists had risen slightly from 6.24 million to 6.25 million. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has acknowledged that she had been forced to turn down requests for funding in a sign of the behind-the-scenes wrangling over her spending review. She insisted the blame for the tight economic situation lay with the Conservatives rather than her rigid rules on borrowing and spending. The Chancellor said despite a £190 billion increase in funding over the spending review period 'not every department will get everything that they want next week and I have had to say no to things that I want to do too'. On top of the increase in day-to-day spending, funded in part by the tax hikes Ms Reeves set out in her budget, looser borrowing rules will help support a £113 billion investment package. Economists have warned the Chancellor faces 'unavoidably' tough choices when she sets out departmental spending plans on June 11. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank said defence and the NHS will dominate the review, raising the prospect of cuts to other unprotected departments.
