Miliband says Reforms claims of blocking sun are ‘conspiracy theories gone mad’

Ed Miliband has criticised “conspiracy theories gone mad” as Reform MPs accused him of wanting to “block out the sunshine”.

The Energy Secretary urged opposition members to keep their “eyes on the prize” as he said that “clean homegrown power” is the only way for the UK to “take back control of its energy market”.

The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria) has announced plans to research ways of artificially cooling the earth as a short-term combatant of global warming.

Aria, a Government agency, is backed by £56.8 million, and its programme Exploring Climate Cooling will explore whether approaches designed to delay, or avert, climate tipping points could be “feasible, scalable, and safe”.

The study will aim to carry out “small, controlled, geographically confined outdoor experiments on approaches that may one day scale to help reduce global temperatures”, referring to a number of proposed methods such as “increasing the reflectivity of the Earth’s surface (eg by re-growing ice sheets) and constructing space-based reflectors to shade the Earth from a proportion of incoming sunlight”.

During energy questions in the Commons, Reform UK MP Lee Anderson (Ashfield) said: “The Secretary of State thinks it’s a good idea to fill our fields with solar panels at the cost of billions of pounds to the British taxpayer.

“I hate to break it to him, but the solar panels rely on sunshine, so why is he supporting now a project to block out the sunshine?”

Mr Miliband replied: “(Mr Anderson) never ceases to amaze me, and not in a good way.

“What I would say to him is this, and this is where they’ve made their decision, I’m not sure what their position is, which is cheap, clean, home grown, power is the answer for Britain because it gives us energy security, frees us from the petrol states and dictators.

“We’re in favour of it, they’re against it, goodness knows where (the Conservatives) are.”

Reform MP for (South Basildon and East Thurrock) James McMurdock also accused Mr Miliband of having a plan to “block out the sun”, while DUP MP (East Antrim) Sammy Wilson said the Energy Secretary wanted to “put black dust on clouds to block the sun”.

Responding to Mr Wilson, Mr Miliband said: “This is like conspiracy theories gone mad. I mean, I feel like we’ve entered the sort of wacky world here.

“I mean let us just focus, keep our eyes on the prize here. We are vulnerable as a country because of our exposure to fossil fuels.

“This Government has one mission, and one mission alone: that’s clean homegrown power so we take back control.”

Elsewhere in the session, the Tories warned that British families will face higher bills if the Government “sell out” and align the UK’s carbon pricing with Europe’s.

Speaking from the Conservative frontbench, Nick Timothy asked the Government to “rule out aligning the British carbon price with the European one”.

Energy minister Miatta Fahnbulleh said the Government is “engaging with industry on this question” and alignment is something that the sector supports, adding: “We are looking at this, but the critical point I will make is that ultimately we are doing everything that we can do to bear down on energy costs in this country.”

Mr Timothy, MP for West Suffolk, then said: “I think we’re getting closer to them admitting their ‘secret plan’. As soon as the local elections are done, Labour are going to sell out to Europe, and the result will be higher bills for British families.

“But there is more, the EU is expanding carbon pricing to include transport and heating emissions too, alignment with the expanded scheme means extra taxes on every British family to drive their cars and heat their homes.

“So will the minister rule out aligning at least with the expanded scheme, and say no new taxes on everyday life?”

Ms Fahnbulleh described Mr Timothy’s comments as “absolute nonsense”, adding: “It’s a Conservative Party scare story.”