Latest news with #RichardTice
Glasgow Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Glasgow Times
Miliband says Farage trying to ‘airbrush history' over UK's fossil fuel reliance
The Energy Secretary criticised the Reform UK leader's claim that it is 'mindless' for the UK to pursue climate action given its relatively small share of global emissions. Speaking to MPs on the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee on Monday, Mr Miliband said: 'Nigel Farage wants to airbrush history – he wants people to forget the fact it was our exposure to fossil fuels that led to the worst cost-of-living crisis in generations.' Richard Tice was accused by Ed Miliband of threatening investment in Britain (Joe Giddens/PA) 'Family finances wrecked, business finances wrecked, public finances wrecked – and we're still paying the price. 'There is only one answer to that, which is homegrown energy that we control – and the security that you get from that homegrown clean energy is now essential for our energy security and national security. 'Any decision to say let's remain on fossil fuels, subject to a global market controlled by petro states and dictators, frankly surrenders our energy security and national security.' Mr Miliband was responding to comments made by Mr Farage during a BBC interview on Sunday, in which the Clacton MP argued: 'It is absolutely mindless for a country that produces less than 1% of global CO2 to beggar itself.' Pressed on whether he believed in man-made climate change, Mr Farage told Laura Kuenssberg: 'Do I believe there's climate change? Yes. 'Does man have an influence? Impossible to think we haven't got some influence – as to what proportion it is, I've no idea.' Mr Miliband said such arguments 'fly in the face of people's experience of what has happened to them and what they are still facing'. He also hit out at Reform deputy leader Richard Tice, accusing him of threatening investment in Britain's growing green economy. Mr Tice recently sent a formal letter to clean energy firms warning that Reform would seek to cancel net zero-related contracts if it wins power. 'The renewables agenda no longer enjoys cross-party support,' he wrote. 'As a result, your potential participation in AR7 – and any future auctions based on the Clean Power 2030 framework – carries significant political, financial and regulatory risk for your shareholders.' AR7 refers to the UK Government's upcoming seventh allocation round for Contracts for Difference (CfDs), the primary mechanism for supporting low-carbon electricity generation projects such as offshore wind farms. Winning bidders are guaranteed a set price for their energy, providing investment certainty for developers and helping drive down costs. Mr Tice argued that offshore wind farms, new pylons and energy storage infrastructure are driving up costs and threatening grid stability, adding: 'If you enter bids in AR7, you do so at your own risk. We will seek to strike down all contracts signed under AR7.' In response, Mr Miliband said: 'There are people that want to use their opposition to clean energy and climate action to say it is the fault of that – they are just wrong. 'The really irresponsible thing that Richard Tice is doing with that letter is he is almost deliberately putting at risk tens of thousands of jobs across our country.' He added: 'The net zero economy grew three times faster than the economy as a whole last year – he's sending a message to companies: don't come and invest in Britain. 'We're sending the message: come and invest in Britain.' Later in the session, Labour MP Mike Reader asked Mr Miliband: 'Do you think that your response has been tough enough?' The question prompted a wry smile from the Energy Secretary – a nod to his infamous 'tough enough' line during the 2015 general election campaign. 'I'm happy to be tougher,' he replied. 'It's deeply irresponsible what Richard Tice is doing. I think frankly it is playing politics with people's jobs and people's bills. 'It's deeply, deeply irresponsible – and when it has come into contact with reality, you've even got Reform mayors now saying, well, we're distancing ourselves from this. 'It's not where the British people are. I don't think the British people want a culture war on this.'
Western Telegraph
2 days ago
- Business
- Western Telegraph
Miliband says Farage trying to ‘airbrush history' over UK's fossil fuel reliance
The Energy Secretary criticised the Reform UK leader's claim that it is 'mindless' for the UK to pursue climate action given its relatively small share of global emissions. Speaking to MPs on the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee on Monday, Mr Miliband said: 'Nigel Farage wants to airbrush history – he wants people to forget the fact it was our exposure to fossil fuels that led to the worst cost-of-living crisis in generations.' Richard Tice was accused by Ed Miliband of threatening investment in Britain (Joe Giddens/PA) 'Family finances wrecked, business finances wrecked, public finances wrecked – and we're still paying the price. 'There is only one answer to that, which is homegrown energy that we control – and the security that you get from that homegrown clean energy is now essential for our energy security and national security. 'Any decision to say let's remain on fossil fuels, subject to a global market controlled by petro states and dictators, frankly surrenders our energy security and national security.' Mr Miliband was responding to comments made by Mr Farage during a BBC interview on Sunday, in which the Clacton MP argued: 'It is absolutely mindless for a country that produces less than 1% of global CO2 to beggar itself.' Pressed on whether he believed in man-made climate change, Mr Farage told Laura Kuenssberg: 'Do I believe there's climate change? Yes. 'Does man have an influence? Impossible to think we haven't got some influence – as to what proportion it is, I've no idea.' Mr Miliband said such arguments 'fly in the face of people's experience of what has happened to them and what they are still facing'. He also hit out at Reform deputy leader Richard Tice, accusing him of threatening investment in Britain's growing green economy. Mr Tice recently sent a formal letter to clean energy firms warning that Reform would seek to cancel net zero-related contracts if it wins power. 'The renewables agenda no longer enjoys cross-party support,' he wrote. 'As a result, your potential participation in AR7 – and any future auctions based on the Clean Power 2030 framework – carries significant political, financial and regulatory risk for your shareholders.' AR7 refers to the UK Government's upcoming seventh allocation round for Contracts for Difference (CfDs), the primary mechanism for supporting low-carbon electricity generation projects such as offshore wind farms. Winning bidders are guaranteed a set price for their energy, providing investment certainty for developers and helping drive down costs. Mr Tice argued that offshore wind farms, new pylons and energy storage infrastructure are driving up costs and threatening grid stability, adding: 'If you enter bids in AR7, you do so at your own risk. We will seek to strike down all contracts signed under AR7.' In response, Mr Miliband said: 'There are people that want to use their opposition to clean energy and climate action to say it is the fault of that – they are just wrong. 'The really irresponsible thing that Richard Tice is doing with that letter is he is almost deliberately putting at risk tens of thousands of jobs across our country.' He added: 'The net zero economy grew three times faster than the economy as a whole last year – he's sending a message to companies: don't come and invest in Britain. 'We're sending the message: come and invest in Britain.' Later in the session, Labour MP Mike Reader asked Mr Miliband: 'Do you think that your response has been tough enough?' The question prompted a wry smile from the Energy Secretary – a nod to his infamous 'tough enough' line during the 2015 general election campaign. 'I'm happy to be tougher,' he replied. 'It's deeply irresponsible what Richard Tice is doing. I think frankly it is playing politics with people's jobs and people's bills. 'It's deeply, deeply irresponsible – and when it has come into contact with reality, you've even got Reform mayors now saying, well, we're distancing ourselves from this. 'It's not where the British people are. I don't think the British people want a culture war on this.'
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Reform is right to target Miliband's outrageously expensive wind subsidies
The green lobby is in uproar. Apparently investors may never trust the UK government ever again. Democracy itself is under threat. So what has prompted this hysteria? It is a letter sent this week by Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, to the chief executives of major renewables developers to inform them that any new contracts they sign for subsidies may be cancelled by a future government. Tice's intention is simple: to deter these companies and their investors from participating in the upcoming seventh auction for contracts for difference (CfD), which offer green energy generators a guaranteed minimum price for their power. The timing of his letter coincides with a flurry of government announcements suggesting the next auction will impose billions in additional costs on energy bills. The length of subsidies are to be extended from 15 to 20 years – likely in a bid to lower the headline cost levels – and various other amendments have been made that prioritise volume over value by incentivising maximum deployment, rather than lowest cost. Tice is rightly worried about the cost impacts both on heavy industry, which is already struggling with the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world, and households, more of which risk being pushed into fuel poverty.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Labour MPs challenge Richard Tice over Reform UK's plan to scrap green projects
A group of nearly 60 Labour MPs has written to Richard Tice challenging the Reform UK deputy leader's pledge to rip up green energy contracts if his party wins power and questioning if he appreciated the impact this could have on the economy. Led by Polly Billington, the East Thanet MP, and signed by 58 others who have sustainable energy projects in their constituencies, the letter said Tice appeared to have 'under-appreciated the growth potential of the green transition' when he wrote to eight leading energy firms warning that to bid for new contracts carried 'significant' risk. The MPs' letter said growth in the clean energy economy was 10% in 2024, and asked Tice: 'When you made these threats, were you aware you were threatening one of Britain's strongest drivers of growth?' It also cited estimates from the Confederation of British Industry saying the industry supported more than 950,000 often well-paid jobs in the UK, many outside London and the south-east, and asked if Tice saw the CBI as part of the 'unquestioned liberal progressive orthodoxy' which he has blamed for promoting net zero measures. Tice's letter, an example of which he tweeted, warned energy firms against taking part in the next series of bids to apply for guaranteed minimum prices for clean power provision, formally known as allocation round 7 (AR7). If a Nigel Farage-led government took power in Westminster, Tice told the companies, it would reassess net zero commitments, adding: 'As a first step, we will seek to strike down all contracts signed under AR7. You should treat any long-term revenue streams as politically and commercially unsafe.' In their letter, the Labour MPs asked Tice if he was aware that such contracts were not made with the government, but with the Low Carbon Contracts Company, a private company owned by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. They said: 'This means a potential future Reform UK government would not have the ability to 'strike down' any contracts signed through this process, unless you are willing to destroy investor confidence in the whole of UK industry by ripping up contract law. Can you confirm if it is Reform UK policy to rip up contract law?' Speaking to the BBC on Thursday afternoon, Tice appeared to row back on the specific commitment to scrap AR7 contracts, saying a Reform government would only oppose 'any form of variation' to them, something his letter did not appear to set out. Asked about the apparent change, Tice said 'some people may have misread the wording of the letter'. The junior energy minister, Michael Shanks, said Tice's letter and subsequent interview were indicative of 'clown-car economics'. Scrapping clean energy projects could be politically risky for Reform given the number of jobs they support. The party's mayor for Hull and East Yorkshire, Luke Campbell, has previously said he would back such plans if they create jobs in the region. The party's wider stance on doubting human-created climate change and the need to tackle it is also at odds with majority voter views in the UK. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion In an interview with Times Radio on Thursday, Reform's Greater Lincolnshire mayor, Andrea Jenkyns, said she did not believe climate change exists, saying it was just a 'money-making racket' for some industries. 'Do I believe that climate change exists? No,' Jenkyns said. Asked about the mass of evidence showing it was happening, she replied: 'It depends what evidence you look at … I think it's a way to actually make money.' The letter from the Labour MPs pointed at other potential vulnerabilities for Reform, asking if its stance on green energy was shaped at all by donations from fossil fuel interests, also adding: 'Did your party leader Nigel Farage's 'admiration' of Vladimir Putin play a role in your calls for the UK to remain reliant on Russia-dominated fossil fuel markets?'
The Independent
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Richard Tice claims he's seen people carrying ‘bags and bags' of postal votes to a polling station
Richard Tice claimed he has seen "people carry bag loads of postal votes to a polling station on election day" during a House of Commons urgent question on Labour 's strategy for elections on Thursday (17 July). Describing Reform UK's opposition against giving 16 and 17-year-olds the vote at the next general election, the party's deputy leader said they have "grave concerns about the risks to security and the risks of impersonation of postal voting." Responding, democracy minister Rushanara Ali reassured Mr Tice: "Personating another voter is a deliberate act of fraud. It completely undermines our democracy and is a serious criminal offence that will continue to be prosecuted. If he has examples, he should report them to the police."
