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.
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