Miliband’s ‘net zero zealotry leaves Britain vulnerable to Russia and China’

Ed Miliband’s “net zero zealotry” will leave Britain vulnerable to Russian and Chinese sabotage, No 10’s national security adviser has been warned. Jonathan Powell has been told that the Climate Secretary’s plans to decarbonise the grid by 2030 will leave the UK more dependent on electricity imports. A letter from Nick Timothy, a Tory MP, warns that as a result any disruption to those supplies could spark energy rationing and even blackouts. It comes amid growing concerns that Russian and Chinese ships are deliberately cutting undersea cables in Europe to disrupt electricity supplies. One such interconnector between Finland and Estonia went down on Christmas Day in what is a suspected act of sabotage by a Russian tanker. Britain is already dependent on imports of electricity from the continent, which accounted for 16pc of the power the nation used in the first nine months of 2024. Mr Timothy warned that Labour’s plan to decarbonise the grid by switching to intermittent renewables would leave the UK even more reliant on it in the future. He said: “Ed Miliband’s net zero zealotry means he is forcing policy to move faster than technology will allow, betting everything on renewable technologies that do not work when the wind doesn’t...

Read more