New Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho promises not to ‘punish’ families with higher bills to hit green targets
NEW Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho today promises families she will not “punish” them with higher bills just to hit green targets.
The PM is conducting an audit of his net zero policies to see if any can be softened or ditched ahead of the election.
In her first big intervention since her Cabinet promotion, Ms Coutinho says it is wrong to expect people to “change their lives” and give up treats such as foreign holidays.
And she warns Labour’s eco plans would kill off jobs, destroy the economy and cause nationwide blackouts.
Writing in today’s Sun on Sunday, Ms Coutinho says: “Hard-working families should not be forced to change their lives or have extra financial burdens put on them.
“That’s what Labour don’t understand though – you can’t punish people to reach Net Zero.”
Setting out her stall for the first time, the Tory rising star says she is committed to creating new green jobs and cleaning up the environment.
But this must not be done on the backs of hard-working families, she writes.
Giving her Labour rivals both barrels, she says Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to make electricity net zero by 2030 would mean disaster.
She writes: “We could achieve Labour’s 2030 Net Zero target – a target no country in the world has adopted.
“But it would send our businesses abroad and leave people literally in the dark.
“The NHS would seize up and the economy would be destroyed.”
The row over the price of hitting eco targets has reignited in recent months.
Conservatives won the Uxbridge by-election by turning it into a referendum on London’s Ulez car pollution charges.
Rishi Sunak is under pressure from his own MPs to ditch more of his own green policies.
But the PM is understood to have ruled out delaying the 2030 ban on petrol and diesel car sales.
Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, head of the net zero scrutiny group, said: “I realise UK carmakers need certainty but the certainty the government should offer is to stop the ban.”