Ed Miliband 'not telling Brits truth' and 'living in fantasy land' over Net Zero

A leading authority on UK energy production has slammed the Energy Secretary for "not telling the truth" to the British public over Net Zero and that he is living in a "fantasy land". The damning verdict on the Labour Cabinet Member came from Former Chief Executive of Energy UK, Angela Knight, who launching a searing attack on Mr Miliband and what she called "fanatics" around him.

Speaking to , Ms Knight criticised Mr Miliband's Net Zero plans for British energy production and said: "I often think that either he lives in complete sort of cloud cuckoo fantasy land of fanatics, or he actually is knowing that in many respects he is not really telling the people of this country the truth." When asked by the network's host whether she thinks in the country will eventually go down once Britain will go "completely green", the expert said it "can't be the case". She explained: "After all, renewable energy - it comes free in the sense that the wind will always blow and the sun will always shine - but they'll only do it for some of the time. So even though it may reduce cost now to build a wind farm, you've still got to build the backup."

Ms Knight's extraordinary comments come as British Gas boss Chris O'Shea directly contradicted claims from Mr Miliband that renewable energy investment would lower bills for consumers.

In a LinkedIn post, Mr O'Shea claimed: "The build-out of renewables will not materially reduce UK electricity prices from current levels. They may give price stability and avoid future price strikes... but will definitely not reduce the price."

Speaking this week during a visit to a proposed 3,155 acre solar farm site in East Yorkshire, Mr Miliband said he was going to make the case for "why renewables are about lower bills and they're about good jobs".

The solar farm plan had met with fierce local objections, but the project has been given the green light by Westminister. Mr Miliband told the BBC: "Whenever decisions like that are made, we listen to local people's views.

"But we have to make also wider decisions about how we're going to get clean, homegrown power that we control so we can cut people's bills and we know what happens when we're left reliant on fossil fuels."

But speaking on GB News, Ms Knight said she had little time for the minister's promises on lowering bills, adding: "I don't think Ed Miliband's promise was a great promise, and I'm not sure how many people believed him, because there's no way that you can start a programme of huge investment and somehow it doesn't get paid for.

"So under any sort of circumstances, the big push for renewables, wind farms, for solar and so on is an expensive one.

"It might be much better for the environment, but the reality of cost has always been there and has been one of those things which Ed Miliband has unfortunately tended to sideline."

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: "We are making the UK a clean energy superpower to get off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets controlled by dictators and replace that with clean homegrown power we control. That is how we can protect family finances and our national finances.

"As shown by the National Energy System Operator's independent report, clean power by 2030 is achievable and will deliver a more secure energy system, which could see a lower cost of electricity and lower bills."