Inside Labour’s debate on its £28bn green pledge

Merry Christmas Keir Starmer. The Labour leader ends the year with a commanding lead in the polls and both business and media figures working on the assumption that by this time next year he will be in 10 Downing Street. In contrast, Rishi Sunak has little reason for cheer this December (even if he did tell The Spectator that despite everything he is enjoying the job). There is one area where the Tories still think they have an advantage over Labour and that’s Starmer’s green spending plan. ‘It’s how we will will the election,’ insists one optimistic government aide.

Announced by Rachel Reeves in 2021 at Labour conference, the party pledged to borrow £28bn a year to invest in green jobs and industry. Back then, Reeves promised to be ‘the first green chancellor’ as she unveiled the party’s biggest spending pledge to date. The policy has parallels with Joe Biden’s Green New Deal — with Labour planning to attract a matching sum of private investment in green technologies.