Richard Tice really doesn’t like net zero. The last time the Reform deputy leader mentioned it in parliament – during topical questions for the Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband – he referred to the policy as “net stupid zero”, sounding more like a precocious toddler than an MP. So, it was no surprise to hear Tice target the plan to cut carbon emissions again last week, telling a press conference that his party plans to put “the renewables industry on notice”.
According to Reform, the UK’s net zero policies are to blame for the UK’s steep energy costs and declining industrialisation. Tice described renewable energy as a “massive con” and a “rip-off” and explained that Reform would tax solar farms and run energy cables underground rather than on pylons. Appearing on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg TV show yesterday, Tice doubled down on his anti-net zero zeal: “We’d scrap the whole thing and save tens of billions of pounds… we don’t need net zero. It’s destroying jobs. It’s destroying industries.” I think you get the picture.
Tice’s argument is a simple one. We shouldn’t try to reach net zero because the upfront technology costs are too great. The ends (lower carbon emissions) do not justify the means (the green transition), and according to his logic, the money is much better off diverted elsewhere. The electoral reasoning for this war on net zero is clear: ahead of May’s local elections, Reform is drawing a direct line with Labour on one of the government’s key policies.
But drilling into the detail of Reform’s plans exposes a series of contradictions. According to Tice, renewable energy has been a driver of the cost-of-living crisis, hiking up energy bills and leaving consumers worse off. But this isn’t true. The UK’s ongoing energy crisis has primarily been caused by our over-reliance on imported natural gas and therefore our exposure to an increasingly volatile energy market. When Russia invaded Ukraine almost three years ago the crisis became particularly acute and hasn’t quite settled since.
The main reason for the UK’s over-reliance on gas is its continued use in domestic heating. Developing new ways to heat our homes using renewable electricity (such as by heat pumps, a heating source that takes heat – either from the air or the ground – and uses it to control the temperature of a building) will accelerate the transition to clean energy and, in the long run, bring costs down, not push them up. Because it’s a finite resource natural gas will eventually run out, so remaining dependent on it is an enormous sunk cost.
For a party that prides itself on taking a Britain-first approach, Reform’s desire to leave the UK reliant on imported natural gas rather than making way for British manufacturing is not very patriotic. Renewable energy, generated by wind farms or solar panels in the UK, undermines this dependence on international markets and would allow the British energy system to enjoy an abundant resource.
Indeed, some of the measures that Reform has pledged to introduce could actually increase energy costs in the short term. Tice mentioned a “generation tax” for renewable energy companies. With 42.3 per cent of the UK’s electricity generated via renewable sources in the 12 months to January, companies would likely pass the cost of higher taxes on to their customers.
In positioning itself so blatantly against net zero, Reform is defining itself as a party unconcerned with the perils of climate change and energy security. This could become a problem for it at the polls. As the More in Common pollster Luke Tryl has pointed out, public opposition to net zero is very limited at around 16 per cent, with most people seeing renewables as a way out of the cost-of-living crisis, not as its cause.
We’ve been here before. Rishi Sunak made similar, though less drastic, arguments when he rolled back several of the UK’s net zero commitments in 2023. He argued that it wasn’t right for “Westminster to impose such significant costs on working people” in an attempt to win back voters the Conservative Party had lost. (Look how that worked out for him.)
All of this presents a challenge to Labour – and an opportunity. Reform has put itself on the opposite end of the climate spectrum to Keir Starmer’s government. But Labour’s climate policies are some of the government’s most detailed: Clean Power 2030, the Warm Homes Plan and GB Energy all form part of the party’s mission to end the UK’s dependence on imported natural gas and bring bills down. One 2025-intake Labour MP told me last week that GB Energy was the most popular policy on the doorstep when they were canvassing in the general election. But the devil is in the delivery and if voters can’t see a change in their energy bills over the next four and a half years, they may come around to Reform’s way of thinking.
This piece first appeared in the Morning Call newsletter; receive it every morning by subscribing on Substack here
[See also: Can Kim Leadbeater justify her assisted dying bill?]
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