Ed Miliband is humiliated over his green targets as Keir Starmer waters down his manifesto pledge for zero-carbon electricity by 2030

Ed Miliband was humiliated yesterday as Keir Starmer watered down his pledge on clean power.

The Energy Secretary has repeatedly promised to make Britain a zero-carbon ‘energy superpower’ by 2030.

But the Prime Minister diluted the goal as he announced a new ‘milestone’ to put the UK ‘on track to at least 95 per cent clean power by 2030’. The Labour election manifesto this year and Sir Keir’s ‘missions’ both promised ‘zero-carbon electricity’.

Sir Keir yesterday denied rowing back on the vow as he took questions following a major speech at Pinewood Studios in west London.

He said: ‘The clean energy pledge is today exactly what it was in the election – that has always been central to our mission. The mission hasn’t changed from the day I launched it nearly two years ago. In terms of where we need to get to on clean energy by 2030, it’s exactly the same as it always was.’

Labour insisted the two statements were consistent, with Mr Miliband saying the remaining

Five per cent was due to the need to maintain a strategic gas reserve.

Mr Miliband has said renewable energy is ‘unstoppable’, championing plans to ‘make Britain a clean energy superpower with zero-carbon electricity by 2030’.

The Energy Secretary has repeatedly promised to make Britain a zero-carbon ‘energy superpower’ by 2030

Keir Starmer yesterday watered down Milibands pledge on clean power

Last night, Tory energy spokesman Claire Coutinho accused the Government of watering down the pledge because of its ‘monumental’ cost. She said: ‘In March, Labour promised to deliver 100 per cent clean power. It’s still up on their website. Now Starmer has watered down that pledge because he knows it will come with a monumental price tag.

‘Perhaps that’s why he didn’t pledge to cut energy bills by £300 today, as Ed Miliband repeatedly promised during the election.’

Ms Coutinho also criticised Chris Stark, head of the UK’s Mission for Clean Power, for claiming the policy has not been watered down. She said: ‘I have never seen a supposedly impartial civil servant publicly defend a party political position.’

Sir Keir also promised to stop red tape, including measures to protect nature, getting in the way of major infrastructure projects.

He vowed to accelerate planning decisions on 150 schemes, and said he would take on ‘blockers and bureaucrats’ who stand in the way of construction.

The Prime Minister repeated Labour’s pre-election target of building 1.5million homes in England over the course of this Parliament, and said he would face down ‘nimbys’ and an ‘alliance of naysayers’. He said the ‘absurd’ planning system was ‘a chokehold on the growth our country needs’.

NHS 

Health leaders welcomed the Prime Minister’s pledge to cut waits for routine NHS operations but expressed doubts it could be achieved.

Health leaders welcomed the Prime Minister’s pledge to cut waits for routine NHS operations but expressed doubts it could be achieved

Sir Keir Starmer promised 92 per cent of patients would start hospital treatment no later than 18 weeks after seeing a GP by July 2029.

The latest figures in England show an estimated 7.57million procedures such as hip and knee replacements or cataract removal outstanding at the end of September: 249,343 patients had been waiting more than a year.

Critics warned focusing on such operations could undermine other services.

Can he deliver? 2/5 

Eco Drive  

Despite Labour’s watering down of its target to ‘decarbonise’ the electric grid by 2030, its goal is still seen as a ‘moon-shot’ by many.

Obstacles in the way include a shortage of skilled workers to install heat pumps, a lack of capacity in the electric grid, supply chain issues such a sourcing enough undersea cables to link wind farms to the mainland, and demand management.

The 42,000 heat pumps installed in the UK in 2024 by early October is already more than the whole of 2023, when about 40,000 were installed. But the figure is a long way off the target of 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028.

Can he deliver? 1/5

Homes 

The Prime Minister pledged to build 1.5million homes by 2029 so working-class people can enjoy ‘security’ and the ‘base camp aspiration of home ownership’.

Sir Keir also called on his ministers to turbocharge decisions on major infrastructure projects in the hope of approving at least 150 gigafactories, solar farms, roads and railway lines in the next five years.

There was a £5billion boost announced in the Budget. But the Centre for Cities think-tank said Labour will fall 388,000 short of the 1.5million target without more radical changes to planning. The proposals have been branded ‘impossible to achieve’ by some local authorities.

Can he deliver? 2/5

 Police

The Prime Minister has promised to put 13,000 additional officers, PCSOs and special constables on the beat in England and Wales.

This sounds like a big boost, but almost a quarter will be drawn from existing ranks. Forces will recruit only an extra 3,000 officers, along with 4,000 PCSOs and 3,000 special constables.

The Prime Minister has promised to put 13,000 additional officers, PCSOs and special constables on the beat in England and Wales

 Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has so far only promised £100 million to pay for the recruitment of 1,200 new officers.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said Sir Keir Starmer has ‘misled the public by claiming to recruit an extra 13,000 officers’.

The PM has also promised to have a named, contactable officer in every community. But given the low number of new recruits and the fact named officers for communities

already exist, these are not challenging targets.

Can he deliver? 5/5

Schools

The party wants at least three quarters of children in Reception class to be ‘school-ready’, meaning they have a basic set of skills.

This includes using the toilet, getting dressed, speaking with a decent vocabulary, recognising numbers and being able to sit still and listen. Sir Keir wants to raise the ‘school-ready’ proportion from 67.7 per cent to a record 75 per cent – an additional 40,000 to 45,000 children a year.

He will deliver this through his roll-out of 30 free nursery hours for under-fives from working families from September 2025. He also cited Labour’s plan for 3,000 new and expanded school-based nurseries.

There are questions over whether the early-years sector can expand in the face of a recruitment and retention crisis.

Can he deliver? 3/5

Income

Sir Keir Starmer was accused of lacking ambition over his pledge on the economy.

The Prime Minister ditched his pre-election promise to make Britain’s economy the fastest growing in the G7 by the end of the Parliament.

His ‘Plan for Change’ blueprint made no mention of the previous pledge. It was instead replaced with a promise to deliver higher living standards across the UK by raising real household disposable income (RHDI) and gross domestic product (GDP) per person.

But RHDI has risen in every Parliament since 1955; GDP per person has also risen in all bar two. Mike Brewer, of the Resolution Foundation, said: ‘These new milestones are not very stretching.’

Can he deliver? 5/5