LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s opposition Labour Party said it would scrap a target to eventually spend 28 billion pounds ($35.33 billion) annually on green industries if it won a national election expected this year in its biggest U-turn yet on a key policy.
Labour, which according to opinion polls is on course to win a national election this year, had vowed to invest heavily in green technologies and jobs to help snap Britain out of a prolonged period of economic stagnation.
Leader Keir Starmer said the worsened economic outlook and high borrowing costs meant that Labour would ditch the main spending target, though it would maintain a range of the policies, such as the creation of a publicly-owned green power company, which he said were fully funded.
“(But) we won’t make further, or new, investment decisions. And that means that we won’t reach the 28 billion pounds envisaged, and that figure is effectively stood down,” he told broadcasters.
“The reason for that is because since we announced the 28 billion, the Tories (Conservative Party) have done terrible damage to our economy… I have to anticipate the circumstances as they are now, not as I’d wish them to be.”
Labour, which lost power in 2010 in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash, has sought to portray itself as the party of fiscal responsibility to try to rebuild confidence that it can be trusted to run the economy once again.
That has led to the gradual erosion of a one-time flagship pledge. In 2021, Labour initially said it would invest 28 billion pounds every year until 2030. That ambition was scaled back last year.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the final ditching of the 28 billion figure was another example of Starmer reversing course on a policy.
“This was the flagship plank of Labour’s economic policy, and it now looks like he’s trying to wriggle out of it,” Sunak said ahead of confirmation the target had been ditched.
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(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman, Sachin Ravikumar and Alistair Smout in London and Utkarsh Shetti in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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