Ed Miliband’s ‘delusions’ make him unfit to be chancellor (Image: Getty)
Miliband allies say he’s “desperate” to get the job and seize control charge of the UK economy. Burnham ally Louise Haigh admits he’s in the running, saying the two men are “very good friends” who can work well together. That won’t last. The two would quickly fall out. Miliband has zero patience with people who disagree with him, and is willing to stab them in the back if it suits him. His brother David Miliband discovered that. So did boss Sir Keir Starmer. Burnham should watch his back if he’s reckless enough to make Miliband the most powerful man in his government. In fact, we all had.
As energy secretary, Ed Miliband is creating a catastrophe. His net zero crusade is set to cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of pounds, hollow out Britain’s industrial base and drive up household energy bills, making a mockery of his outrageous fib that he’d cut them by £300. He’s also overseeing the destruction of tens of thousands of North Sea oil and gas jobs, while the 600,000 green jobs he fantasises about haven’t shown up. Climate change is real. But Miliband’s posturing won’t solve it.
I’ve been reading a devastating critique of his approach by the Oxford economist Dieter Helm, one of Britain’s foremost energy experts and a former government adviser. Helm isn’t a climate sceptic. He’s spent decades arguing for serious action on climate change. His complaint is that Miliband has chosen the wrong policies, at huge cost to you.
Helm has previously branded Ed Miliband for “delusions” over his 2030 clean power target. He argued that trying to decarbonise Britain’s electricity system by 2030 while simultaneously cutting household energy bills simply isn’t economically credible. In Helm’s view, those two promises cannot both be true. And he’s not the only one to slam Miliband’s fantasies.
Helm returned to the attack on 3 June this year in a remarkable paper: The Cost of Energy and What to Do About It. It hasn’t had anything like the attention it deserves. I’m highlighting it now because Burnham is choosing his chancellor, and somebody in Number 10 needs to read it before it’s too late.
Helm’s central argument is brutal. Miliband keeps telling us that renewable electricity is cheap. It isn’t. He quotes the cost of generating wind and solar power, but ignores the much bigger bill for back-up power when the wind doesn’t blow, storage, balancing the grid, new pylons, transmission networks and all the extra infrastructure needed to keep the lights on. Consumers pay the total system cost. Miliband kids us otherwise.
Helm says Britain has some of the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world, making it impossible for manufacturers to compete and driving industry and jobs overseas. Closing British factories, only to import the same products from countries burning coal, doesn’t reduce global emissions. It simply exports jobs while doing nothing to solve the climate crisis.
Miliband has become obsessed with hitting domestic carbon targets while ignoring affordability, competitiveness and energy security. He thinks we’re a model for other other countries to follow. Instead, we’re a dire warning.
Helm has issued a devastating assault. It doesn’t just expose the flaws in Miliband’s policies but the hare-brained fanaticism behind them. He’s gaslighting the country while refusing to admit the true cost of what he’s doing. He has a reputation for getting things done. That’s because he never lets reality get in the way.
Burnham won’t control him, whatever Louise Haigh says. Miliband will tear off in his own direction and the country will pay the price. This must not happen. Burnham needs to wake up now. He won’t listen to me. But he must listen to the experts. Helm has issued a dire warning of what will follow if Miliband grabs even more power. Voters rejected this lunatic in 2015, when he stood as Labour leader. Now he’s snuck in by the back door. Calamity awaits.