Starmer, Sarwar and Miliband are putting out mixed messages on the purpose of GB Energy, writes TERRY MURDEN
When Sir Keir Starmer told a radio interviewer on Friday morning that his new GB Energy company would not be a generator, but an investment vehicle, he caused some excitement among the media and opposition politicians who detected another u-turn on a policy that appeared to be quickly unravelling.
The SNP said it showed Labour’s plan was a sham, while the Scottish Greens, normally supporters of transition, were equally unimpressed by GB Energy coming out with a new identity and accused Labour of misleading voters. Labour’s top brass were forced to explain its true purpose but left us wondering if it would, in the end, be a bit of both. A sort of non-binary energy company.
Despite earlier statements that it would be a generator, there has been some chatter on social media and elsewhere for some time that GBE would most likely be an investor, operating like the Scottish National Investment Bank to get projects off the ground.
In one recent comment on LinkedIn, Aidan Kerr, senior external affairs manager at Drax Group, said that GB Energy would be taking “minority equity stakes as a co-invester in energy projects which align with their 2030 clean power target”.
That view certainly aligns with the Labour leader’s statement. However, the issue is far from settled. As readers of Daily Business were made aware, the seeds of confusion had been sewn in the days leading up to Sir Keir’s comments.
When setting out Labour’s energy plans at the Prosper Forum in Edinburgh – just a day before Sir Keir’s visit to Inverclyde – Scottish leader Anas Sarwar stated quite clearly that GBE would indeed be a “publicly-owned energy generating company”.
Mention of the G-word in front of a sold out audience of 160 business and public sector delegates caught my attention and I followed him out of the conference hall to ask for some clarification. He explained that GBE will not be an energy generating company, but will invest alongside other companies to help generate cheaper energy.
This was beginning to sound like the scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian when political agitator Reg (John Cleese), leader of the People’s Front of Judea expresses his indignation at being confused with the Judean People’s Front.
Some further digging revealed that Mr Sarwar had posted a video on Twitter/X on Monday stating that GBE would be a “publicly-owned energy generation company”. How could he put out such a message – twice – in the same week that his boss was in Scotland to say this was not its purpose?
Things only got more muddled after Sir Keir’s speech when Ed Miliband, the Shadow Energy Secretary, told a TV interviewer that GBE would be like France’s state-owned EDF… “which is a company that generates electricity”.
The next big question is how GB Energy will cut bills, as promised. Sceptics say Labour is being misleading about its claims and that it will struggle to achieve what the private sector has been unable to deliver and that its 2030 deadline is extremely challenging.
A more pressing case is emerging over building the grid that will cope with all this extra electricity. That will also be a responsibility of GB Energy. Well, as far as we know.
Amid the confusion, the West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine Tory candidate Andrew Bowie said Labour had made “a vow to turn off the taps in the North Sea – which the SNP support” and that this would “destroy tens of thousands of jobs and devastate communities across the North East.”
This was in spite of Sir Keir, Mr Sarwar and the SNP Economy Secretary Kate Forbes all stating categorically that they would not turn off the taps. Sir Keir went so far as to say oil would continue to be produced for “decades to come” and that his plans would create thousands of jobs. Ms Forbes told the Prosper Forum on Thursday that oil would need to continue flowing in order to create green jobs.
David Whitehouse, CEO of Offshore Energies UK, said it was “good to hear again from Labour that if they win this General Election, they won’t turn off the taps and revoke oil and gas licences and they recognise the need for oil and gas in the UK for many decades to come.”
No matter, the Tories insisted that both parties’ ban or presumption against new licences being granted meant they were “perfectly entitled to characterise it” as turning off the taps.
So there we have it. A new energy company that will/won’t be a generator, a commitment to create/destroy jobs and a pledge to turn off/not turn off the oil taps.
Over to the electorate.
Terry Murden was Scotland editor and Business Editor at The Sunday Times, Business Editor at The Scotsman, and Business and City Editor at Scotland on Sunday. He is now Editor of Daily Business
Leave a Reply