Labour will announce tomorrow that it is scaling back its flagship green prosperity plan, Sky News understands.
The policy will not be dropped altogether, but the party is ditching the financial target to spend £28bn a year on environmental schemes.
Labour will put this down to uncertain public finances and is also likely to say that this is the outcome of finalising ideas for their manifesto for the next general election, expected later this year.
The major U-turn comes after weeks of confusion surrounding the policy.
Last week, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves refused to commit to the spending target 10 times when asked by Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby if the pledge remained in place.
However earlier today, Sir Chris Bryant, a shadow digital minister, told Sky News that “we are doing it” – adding that “it will be £28bn”.
And just yesterday Sir Keir Starmer also insisted he was not scaling back on the pledge, telling Times Radio: “We want to have clean power by 2030…that’s where the £28 billion comes in. That investment is desperately needed for that mission and I’ve been unwavering in relation to mission clean power by 2030.”
The pledge to spend £28bn a year on environmental projects, like offshore wind farms and electric vehicles, was first made in 2021 as part of a promise that Labour would be the greenest government in history were it to win the keys to Number 10.
But it was watered down last year to be a target to work towards, rather than a day-one commitment, with Ms Reeves blaming rising interest rates and the “damage” the Conservatives had done to the economy for the change in direction.
The costly pledge has long been used by the Tories to criticise Labour’s fiscal responsibility, following Rishi Sunak’s decision to scrap a number of the government’s own green pledges.
The party is said to be split on the matter, with some shadow ministers arguing the policy plays into Conservative attacks on Labour’s economic credibility, and others fearing ditching it will accentuate the feeling that Sir Keir has rowed back on the majority of his key pledges.
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