Tories launch ‘Where’s Ed Miliband?’ website after green pledge U-turn
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The Tories have accused Ed Miliband of going into hiding after Labour ditched his flagship £28 billion green spending plan.
Conservative Central Office launched a “Where’s Ed?” website with a ticker claiming that Mr Miliband, the shadow climate secretary, was last seen 141 days ago.
On Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, announced that he was abandoning his party’s green spending pledge, blaming the Tories for making it unaffordable.
Mr Miliband was reportedly deeply unhappy with the U-turn and argued against it at a meeting with the leadership on Tuesday, only to be overruled. His allies have insisted he fully backs the decision and is not dodging scrutiny.
The Tory claim that he has not been seen for 141 days relates to his last appearance in the broadcast media, which was on Sept 21.
Mr Miliband has backed the decision to drop the £28 billion plan in writing, though he has not so far appeared in public since the move to do so was announced. In a written statement, he said Labour still had “a world-leading agenda on climate and energy”.
He then posted a series of tweets in which he blamed “the Conservatives’ economic mismanagement and their scorched earth policy” for the U-turn.
‘Ed is fully signed up to this’
Sir Keir insisted on Thursday afternoon that the shadow climate secretary would be appearing in public on Friday and that he backed the decision, saying: “Ed is fully signed up to this. We’ve talked it through and everybody’s signed up to this plan.
“And you’ll all be pleased to know that all three of us will be on airwaves near you in the next 24 hours. So Ed will be out, Rachel [Reeves] will be out, I will be out. You’ll see all of our smiling faces. And, as you’d expect, that’s the way that we reach decisions.”
Mr Miliband did not appear on Friday’s morning broadcast round, with Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, stepping into the breach alongside Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor.
The shadow climate secretary has appeared in public recently, including at a CBI conference at which he briefed business leaders on Labour’s green plans just over 10 days ago.
His most recent speech to the Commons was on Jan 22, when he led his party’s opposition to the awarding of new oil and gas licences.
Rishi Sunak claimed Labour’s green U-turn showed it has “no plan” for Britain, adding: “Their signature economic policy is in tatters, and when you don’t have a plan, you can’t deliver any change for the country.”
