Fuel crisis: Ed Miliband blames Government for 'decade of inaction'

Shadow business, energy and industrial strategy secretary Ed Miliband has said a “decade of inaction” has led to the fuel crisis and the Government needs to fund energy companies to keep them afloat.

The Labour MP for Doncaster North said: “There does need to be cash support which is going to keep these industries going.

“The trouble of the last few days was the Treasury looking like it thought this was just unreasonable and they were against it happening, and that is just completely wrong.

“There’s a longer-term issue here though. Yes there is a global dimension to this, but we are so exposed because we don’t have the gas storage.

“We’ve stalled on renewables including on on-shore wind and solar, and nuclear programme is stalled.

“And crucially, we haven’t made the steps we need on energy efficiency. This is a decade of inaction we’ve seen that’s led us to this point", said Ed Miliband, speaking to the BBC’s Today programme

This comes as the Conservative Party co-chairman Oliver Dowden has defended Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to relax in a Spanish villa while the UK faces energy shortages and problems recruiting much-needed HGV drivers.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, he said: “I’ve worked closely with three prime ministers and I can assure you that there’s no such thing as a holiday for a prime minister.

“I know the Prime Minister will be and is working out there and is engaged with issues going on in the UK.

“But also, I hope your viewers will appreciate that the Prime Minister has been through a challenging time in a lot of different ways – he had Covid-19, he’s got a new child on the way, and very sadly he lost his mother just a few weeks ago.

“So this is a just a short break and he will be returning to the UK and I am expecting to see him later this week.”