Rishi Sunak and the coming Tory battle over climate change

The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, isn’t normally given to waffle, which makes his maiden appearance on GB News all the more remarkable. Asked by Andrew Neil who – government or homeowner – would have to pay the estimated £10,000 per household cost of replacing domestic gas boilers with heat pumps to help reach the target of net zero emissions by 2050 Sunak replied: 

‘So when you say the alternative is the household or the government, the government’s money is the people’s money. And that’s my point when I say ultimately we all pay. The government does have any separate money of its own’

As a general point of political philosophy, it was a fair enough statement. But it is one which might better be applied by a Chancellor who was proposing to cut public spending – not one who is proposing to hit homeowners with huge costs over the next decade.