The Energy Secretary isn’t just driving up our energy bills. He’s crushing British industry too.
Ed Miliband is destroying the British car industry along with everything else (Image: Getty)
Ed Miliband’s job is to ensure Britain has an affordable, secure supply of energy for homes and businesses. That would let families heat and light their houses without fear, and give companies a fighting chance to compete and grow. But that isn’t his priority. All that matters is his frantic green transition.
Miliband seems content to let millions shiver through winter and entire industries go bust or flee overseas, by giving us some of the highest energy prices in the world. It’s costing us £14billion a year, but Ed doesn’t care. So long as he can signal his virtuous net zero credentials to Labour activists, who adore him.
During the election, Miliband promised his green plans would cut £300 from the average household energy bill. Households are already paying £187 more, despite plunging oil and gas prices. And that will only climb.
The National Energy System Operator estimates that achieving net zero on Miliband’s timetable will cost a staggering £350billion. We simply can’t afford that. Worse still, it will do little for the planet as we import more fossil fuels from abroad.
Now Mad Ed has found a new way to impoverish Britain. This one could engineer the death of a vital domestic industry. Deliberately.
British car making was once a source of national pride. Even in the late 1990s, the UK produced almost two million vehicles a year. Today, all the major brands are foreign-owned, but at least they trust us to glue them together. Not for much longer.
Vehicle production has slumped to its lowest level since the 1950s, and plunged another 7.3% in the six months to June. The closure of Vauxhall’s Luton plant, partly pinned on Miliband, slashed van production by 45%, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
In 2023, we made 905,117 vehicles. That’s set to slump to just 773,239 this year, destroying even more decent jobs.
Labour will blame US tariffs and Chinese competition. But while ministers can’t control our competitors, they can rein in Miliband, who’s actively accelerating the decline.
Under the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, driven through by the Tories in January 2024, carmakers were forced to ensure 22% of all new car sales are fully electric. Under Miliband, the target has climbed to 28%, backed with a punitive £15,000 penalty for each vehicle they fall short. It’s insanity.
British motorists still don’t trust electric cars, which are expensive to buy, awkward to charge and depreciate rapidly. Manufacturers can’t force people to part with their money, yet Miliband behaves as if they can. It’s another example of Labour’s complete failure to grasp how business works (the Tories weren’t great either).
The ZEV target will steadily climb until it hits 80% by 2030, when petrol and diesel car sales are banned altogether.
Carmakers are dumping EVs at a loss in a desperate bit to lure customers. Now plants are closing and manufacturers are scaling back expansion plans. Jet engine maker Rolls-Royce may pull out too.
Even the EU has seen sense, reversing plans to ban new petrol and diesel cars by 2035. Miliband is putting his foot to the floor.
Industrial output is shrinking. Car production is collapsing. GDP has contracted in four of the last seven months. A recession looms.
People are calling it the Reevescession, blaming Rachel Reeves’s tax-and-spend spree. That’s unfair on Ed Miliband. He’s doing his bit too.
