Claire Coutinho spent a lot of her conference speech as Energy Secretary attacking Labour and ‘short-term Starmer’, and the rest of it explaining why Rishi Sunak’s policy changes on net zero meant Britain could stay committed to its climate targets. The ‘short-term Starmer’ line is one we will hear a lot at this conference from ministers standing in front of a conference set bearing the slogan ‘long-term decisions for a brighter future’.
Coutinho was as keen to talk about a former Labour leader who she said had ‘clearly radicalised’ Starmer: Ed Miliband. Miliband’s influence over the current leader has been a topic of debate in his own party for a while, and the Tories are keen to exploit those tensions. They also want to remind the public of a Labour party that it rejected in 2015.
Her case regarding net zero was that the approach had shifted over the years to penalise people at a time when they could least afford it. She argued that in other countries, net zero-sceptic parties had grown in popularity, but that the Conservatives had the right values to tackle climate change. She personalised this, describing people who were just trying to get to work and earn enough money for their families as being the victims.
She had a few announcements to the quiet, rather flat hall, including on small modular reactors. But this speech was an election campaign warm-up: justifying the Tory approach and attacking ‘short-term Starmer’.
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