At the Labour Conference currently underway in Liverpool, Keir Starmer has unveiled plans to create a publicly-owned renewable energy firm.
He called it ‘Great British Energy’, and plans for it to be modelled on France’s EDF and other firms owned by foreign states that operate in the UK.
Starmer received a standing ovation in response to the proposition.
The Labour leader told the conference that currently, the largest onshore wind farm in Wales was owned by Sweden, energy bills in Swansea were paying for schools and hospitals in Stockholm, the Chinese Communist party had a stake in the UK’s nuclear industry and five million Britons paid their bills to a French-owned energy company.
His proposed plan would aim to ensure that Starmer’s planned expansion in clean energy would deliver British jobs and greater energy security.
It would also help protect the UK from relying on fuel from countries run by “tyrants like Putin”, he adds. The idea is that it would work with independent companies to help drive an expansion in green energy.
The goal is to turn the UK into a “clean energy superpower”. He pledges this would be set up in the first year of a new Labour government.
