Green Party co-leader denies being hypocrite for opposing Labour’s wind farm pylons

The co-leader of the Green Party has defended himself after the Labour government tried to portray him as a hypocrite on clean energy infrastructure.

In an interview with The Independent ahead of his party’s conference in Manchester this weekend, Adrian Ramsay dismissed the personal claims made against him by prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, among others.

The debate has centred around objections to pylons being built through his picturesque Waveney constituency, which straddles the Norfolk/Suffolk border in East Anglia.

The 114-mile (184km) scheme is expected to run from Norwich to Tilbury in Essex and would transfer energy generated from offshore wind farms to the South East and London.

Labour used the row to portray the Greens as “hypocrites” who really oppose the clean energy infrastructure needed to move Britain’s energy supply from carbon-based fuel, including gas, coal and oil, to clean alternatives.

Sir Keir said it was “extraordinary” that Mr Ramsay was “opposing vital clean energy infrastructure”.

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But Mr Ramsay told The Independent the debate is really about Labour seeking “to do the easy things and avoid doing the difficult things”.

The plan to push ahead with erecting pylons in his rural constituency is one of these easy answers when other solutions are available, he claimed.

Mr Ramsay added: “The question that you are highlighting is around: how do we connect the new wind farms that are in the North Sea to London and the South East, where energy is needed? And there’s a range of ways that you could do that.

“Clearly, we need to connect the energy. But the last [Tory] government and the current [Labour] government have just been pressing ahead with one option, which is to have a new route of pylons that goes through East Anglia.

“There are a couple of other options. One would be to have an offshore grid that brings the energy around the sea and into London that way. Another option would be to have underground cabling for all or some of the routes.

“There are other countries in Europe that have done both of these things... some that have gone offshore, some that have gone for underground as the preferred option.

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“So all I’ve called for is for there to be a proper options assessment of how best to do that connectivity in terms of environmental impact on communities, impact on timescales.

“There’s been no proper options assessment by the last government and this government just wants to press ahead with one option.”

Mr Ramsay, who has been advocating for renewable energy for the last 20 years, points out that he is working cross-party with other East Anglian MPs and councils making the same argument.

But he also thinks the “easy answers” claim against Sir Keir’s new government can be made on wider issues too as the climate crisis continues.

Describing Labour’s first two months in power, he said: “They’re not ambitious enough. On the environment, they’re focused on decarbonising electricity, which is the easier bit to do. Decarbonising heating, reducing energy use in the home, in transport, supporting the restoring of nature and the fact that we have one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth – they’re just not focused on it.

“In fact, I was absolutely gobsmacked that they cut from the nature-friendly farming budget. Only a couple of weeks ago, there was a report that came out that showed that that funding was just starting to have an impact, and nature charities were calling for it to be doubled.”

On social issues, he added: “There was no need for that, just as there was no need for the axing of the winter fuel payment for pensioners.”

He also believes that his party has rattled Labour by “breaking the credibility power” and quadrupling its seats in the last election, winning almost 7 per cent of the vote, which makes it a more serious alternative on the left.

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His co-leader, Carla Denyer, beat Labour frontbencher Thangam Debbonaire in Bristol Central as the party held off Labour’s challenge in Brighton Pavilion. It also won Waveney and North Herefordshire off the Tories.

He said: “During the election, there was a clear sense that people were far more open-minded about how they were going to vote than in previous elections. Not only that, but we have really passed a credibility barrier, that people’s willingness to vote Green at a general election meant it was just so much easier to make that case this time around.

“I think that’s because we’ve shown that we’ve got credibility in local government, with over 800 Green councillors in England and Wales.

“When I was deputy leader 15 years ago ... I knew all of the Green councils around the country. We’ve worked really hard to get to 100 now. It’s something that’s happening at scale.”

While many headlines have been devoted to Nigel Farage and Reform UK, he believes the Greens are the real breakthrough party of the 2024 election in the long term, even though they got one less seat and around half the votes.

“The big difference with Reform electorally is that we have a consistent base of council support across the country, where we’ve been winning large numbers of votes in local elections year in, year out, across all corners of the country.

“So our support in the general election is on firm foundations because it builds on that success in our council members.”

He pointed to the Green Party’s much greater success at local elections this year, saying: “I think I’m right in saying their strategy is the same as it was under Ukip, which is to have a lot of general election campaign effort and see what that delivers you.

“I don’t think that’s a sustainable way to maintain people’s trust and confidence and show that you can be a diligent local representative – and people do want that, first and foremost, from their MP.”