Ed Miliband torn to shreds in furious debate over 'disrespectful' £8bn plan
Labour's flagship GB Energy company will shield consumers from international market shocks, Ed Miliband has insisted.
Shadow energy minister Andrew Bowie has said Labour's plans for state-owned GB Energy could be “the Government’s tombstone” in furious row.
He clashed with Energy Secretary Ed Miliband in the Commons over speculation the £8.3billion company would be headquartered in Aberdeen.
Mr Bowie told MPs: “Please end the disrespect being shown to the people and the businesses of Aberdeen with the ‘will they won’t they’ game being played around the location of GB Energy’s HQ.
"This is an area of the country already worried, politics aside, about its economic future.”
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He added: “Ultimately however the very simple question (Energy Secretary Ed Miliband) will have to answer surely after considering all the points that everybody has made this afternoon is why? Why are they doing this? Britain is already a world leader in clean energy production. We are already leading the world in terms of cutting our carbon emissions. We already export energy.”
He further stated: “Surely the Secretary of State is not that desperate to have something to put his headstone, so desperate to have a new plaque to unveil. It may well be about the headstone but (Mr Miliband) should be aware that this Bill could be the Government’s tombstone.”
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Debating the Great British Energy Bill at its second reading, the Energy Security Secretary took questions about the proposed publicly owned company, which the Government has said it will back with £8.3 billion over the course of this Parliament.
The firm will not supply power to homes because it is designed to help fund existing and new clean technologies
Mr Miliband said: “The truth is that we had the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation because of our exposure to fossil fuels. We have seen prices rise again on October 1, not because of decisions made by Government but because of our dependence on international gas markets.
“The argument for clean energy that we used to debate 15 years ago was a climate argument. It is now as much an energy security argument as a climate argument.”
The Great British Energy Bill has cleared its first Commons hurdle after MPs gave it a second reading by 348 to 95, majority 253.
It will undergo further scrutiny at a later date.
