Number 10 rejects Blair’s claim of ‘hysteria’ in net zero debate

Downing Street has rejected Sir Tony Blair’s claim that “hysteria” is playing a part in the international debate on climate change after the former prime minister criticised efforts to limit fossil fuels.

Sir Keir Starmer disagrees with his predecessor about the tone of global discussions about net zero, Number 10 indicated, after the former Labour leader argued the conversation had become “irrational”.

In a foreword to a report by his think tank the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) published on Tuesday, the New Labour prime minister had argued the current climate approach “isn’t working”.

The intervention was seized on by political opponents as an attack on Sir Keir’s plans to cut carbon emissions and achieve net zero by 2050.

On Wednesday, No 10 failed to deny that the Government has asked the TBI to issue a clarification after the non-profit sent out a follow-up statement insisting its report backed the Labour administration’s climate target.

Asked whether a request had been made for the institute to row back from the remarks, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “I wouldn’t get into private conversations.”

Sir Tony had said: “People know that the current state of debate over climate change is riven with irrationality … any strategy based on either ‘phasing out’ fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail.”

He added that most political leaders “would like to start taking some of the hysteria out of the climate debate but are reluctant to be the first to do so”.

Downing Street distanced Sir Keir from that position on Wednesday, insisting the UK was taking a “pragmatic approach.”

Asked whether the Prime Minister believed hysteria was present in the international debate on climate change, his spokesman said: “I don’t think so, I mean, I think we’re taking a very practical and pragmatic approach to this here in the UK.”

He said the Government’s net zero policy would help with jobs growth and investing in the industries of the future, adding: “The PM has said previously that we will deliver net zero in a way that treads lightly on people’s lives, not telling them how to live or behave.

“We are focused on our mission to be a clean-energy superpower.”

Shortly before Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, the TBI appeared to soften its language in a new statement insisting: “The report is clear that we support the Government’s 2050 net zero targets, to give certainty to the investors and innovators who can develop these new solutions and make them deployable.

“People support climate action, and it is vital that we keep the public’s support for how we do it.”

Responding to a question in the Commons about the apparent dispute, Sir Keir sought to downplay any differences of opinion between himself and his predecessor.

“What Tony Blair said is we should have more carbon capture, we’ve invested in carbon capture. That’s many jobs across different parts of the country,” the Prime Minister said.

“If you look at the detail of what Tony Blair said, he’s absolutely aligned with what we’re doing here, these are the jobs and the security of the future.”

Environment Secretary Steve Reed earlier rejected suggestions that Sir Tony’s intervention amounted to a “public tantrum”.

“He’s making a valid and important contribution to a very significant debate that we’re having,” the minister told Times Radio.

“I agree with much of what he said, but not absolutely every word and dot and comma of it.”

Downing Street insisted the Cabinet was united behind the Government’s net zero policy being overseen by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, but stopped short of guaranteeing he would remain in post for the rest of the Parliament.

Number 10 has previously said both Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Foreign Secretary David Lammy will keep their Cabinet positions for the whole of Labour’s five-year term in power.

Asked if Sir Keir had confidence in Mr Miliband, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Absolutely. He’s doing a fantastic job.”

Pressed on whether he would stay in post for the rest of this Parliament, the spokesman said: “The PM absolutely backs the Energy Secretary, as I said. He does a great job in winning the global race for the jobs of the future.”

Cabinet minister Angela Rayner said Sir Tony had “clarified his comments” and “welcomes our direction of travel” on clean power.

Asked about his remarks during a local elections campaign visit to Yorkshire, the deputy prime minister said he backed the Government on “investing in the renewables and nuclear part of the mix, but we can’t rely on fossil fuels forever”.

“We’ve seen what’s happened in the global market, which has meant people’s bills have shot up, and our energy security needs will rely on other forms of energy going into the future,” she said.

Meanwhile, crossbench peer Lord Stern, who wrote a review of climate change’s economic impact for Sir Tony’s New Labour administration nearly 20 years ago, criticised the TBI’s report as “muddled and misleading”.

In a robust show of support for the Government’s approach to net zero, he said: “There is far more progress being made around the world to decarbonise the global economy than it suggests.

“The UK’s leadership on climate change, particularly the elimination of coal from its power sector, is providing an influential example to other countries.”

He added: “And the report downplays the science in its absence of a sense of urgency and the lack of appreciation of the need for the world to achieve net zero as soon as possible, in order to  manage the growth in climate change impacts that are already hurting households and businesses across the world and in the UK.

“Delay is dangerous.”