A livid row erupted over web zero on tonight’s Question Time as Reform UK’s head of coverage clashed with a former Green Party chief. The fiery second got here because the BBC panel present mentioned how the UK can guarantee power independence as costs soar amid the Iran warfare.
Ex-Green MP Caroline Lucas accused Reform’s James Orr of “lies” after he hit out on the “reckless” web zero push. But Mr Orr branded Ms Lucas’s accusation as an “awful slur” earlier than host Fiona Bruce intervened.
Mr Orr had argued that Britain is “uniquely vulnerable to external shocks all around the world that affect the price of gas and oil”.
He mentioned: “How are we in that vulnerable space, because for years and years the Conservative Party and the Labour Party have committed to the reckless pursuit of net zero which disproportionately hurts those who can afford it least.
“That’s why earlier this week our shadow chancellor Robert Jenrick introduced there can be a clear £200 in our power payments, £85 by zero ranking VAT on power and £115 by scrapping the loopy levies.
“That’s a start, it’s not necessarily exploiting declining fossil fuel fields in the North Sea, although there’s still enough there.
“When the wind does not blow you want fuel to again it up and typically the wind does not blow and we have to have a lot stronger power safety and power sovereignty so we’re proof against wars, geopolitical shocks, over which we regularly have little or no management.”
But Ms Lucas said: “I simply despair of the form of lies James that you’re telling to folks, it really isn’t proper.”
Mr Orr replied: “These aren’t lies, that is an terrible slur.”
Ms Lucas had insisted that the Middle East crisis showed the UK needs to double down on eco policies.
She said: “The greatest method of insulating ourselves is after all to go even additional to get off oil and fuel as quick as doable as to correctly spend money on renewables.”
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2184386/question-time-net-zero