Starmer to launch Great British Energy

Sir Keir Starmer will launch Labour’s planned Great British Energy (GBE) company tomorrow (31 May).

At an event in Scotland, where the publicly owned energy company will be based if Labour wins the forthcoming general election, the opposition leader will launch GBE’s logo and website.

Labour has said that it will get working “within months” of an election victory to build clean power.

At the event, which is being co-hosted by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, Starmer will pledge that GBE’s early investments will include wind and solar projects across the UK, and will make Scotland a “world leader” in new technologies such as floating offshore wind, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage.

The Labour leader said: “Family financial security depends on energy security. The pain and misery of the cost-of-living crisis was directly caused by the Tories’ failure to make Britain resilient, leaving us at the mercy of fossil fuel markets controlled by dictators like Putin.

“It doesn’t have to be this way. Our clean power mission with Great British Energy will take back control of our destiny and invest in cheap, clean homegrown energy that we control.

“We will turn the page on the cost-of-living crisis. The choice at this election is clear: higher bills and energy insecurity with the Conservatives, or lower bills and energy security with Labour.”

Ed Miliband, shadow energy security and net zero secretary, said: “It’s time to move on from the Tories’ bone-headed opposition to clean energy, for which British families are paying the price.”

GBE will be funded with £8.3 billion of capital, raised by Labour’s planned increased windfall tax on oil and gas companies, from the opposition’s dramatically slimmed down Green Prosperity Plan that will be worth £23.7 billion over the course of the next Parliament.

Sam Richards, founder and campaign director at Britain Remade, said: “Labour’s ambition to get building new clean energy projects within months, if they form the next government, is hugely welcome. But they won’t be able to get spades in the ground as quickly as they need to – unlocking the benefits of cheap power and lower bills – unless they tackle head-on Britain’s outdated planning system.

“There is a list of projects currently sat in the department that on day one Labour can and should give the green light to: Sunnica energy farm, Mallard Pass Solar Project and Gate Burton Energy Park. These energy projects are ready to go and should be signed-off as soon as new ministers get behind their desks.

“Beyond that they should move as quickly as possible to reform consultations, streamline environmental impact assessments, and amend the habitats regulations to dramatically speed up the planning system for clean energy.”