Nigel Farage urges Boris Johnson to become energy self-sufficient after launching campaign to abolish PM’s Net Zero policy

Nigel Farage has urged Boris Johnson to stop relying on other countries for its energy production after he called on a referendum on the Prime Minister’s Net Zero policy.

Mr Farage announced on Sunday that he was launching a bid to campaign, titled “Power Not Poverty” for a new referendum on Mr Johnson’s policy, calling for the abandonment of the green policy that aims to decarbonise the economy by 2050.

Speaking on his GB News’ Talking Pints with Nigel Farage on Monday, the former Brexit party leader called on Mr Johnson to produce the entirety of the energy it uses on home soil, saying it has become “wholly dependant” on other countries.

He said: "I've become increasingly vexxed about the Government's energy strategy.

"We import 50 percent of the natural gas we need, and we need it. There’s no need to import that gas, there’s lots of that gas in the country. The same goes for oil as British or Scottish governments don’t give any encouragement to continue in the North Sea.

“We also import up to nine percent of our electricity from our lovely man, President Macron. We’ve made ourselves wholly dependant in energy terms on other countries.

"All be it, we’re far less dependent on Mr Putin, who only sells us about four percent of the natural gas that we buy as opposed to Germany who would literally be closed down overnight because of the disastrous policies by Angela Merkel.

“This week the two drill holes that a firm called Cuadrilla sunk up in the north-west of England. Those wells designed to get natural gas. They have to be filled with concrete this week; can you think of anything more ludicrous at this moment in time. As a result of that, 40 conservative MPs and peers between them have written to the Prime Minister saying that this would be an act of folly.

He added: “Let’s become self-sufficient in energy, let’s get rid of the five percent VAT on our bills and stop loading up people’s electricity bills, up to 20 percent of that bill is green subsidies, all of this has happened with no debate whatsoever.

“And if these things are done, we deserve to have a referendum about this. I feel very strongly about this.

“That’s not me turning my back on green energy, on renewable energy, on low carbon energy and I’d love to see hydrogen cells become a huge success.

“But the fact is we are going to need considerable amounts of fossil fuels for many, many years to come so we may as well produce them ourselves and not to be dependent on anyone else in the world.”