‘Families and businesses will have lower bills for good.’ That’s a promise the Labour Party is making to the British public should it get into power.

One of Labour’s six ‘missions’ for government is to make the UK a ‘clean energy superpower’ by 2030, by investing in wind, solar, carbon capture and energy storage. Great British Energy, a new state-backed investment company, will help fund the replacement of fossil fuels with a carbon-free electricity system. This expansion in renewable energy will not just save the planet, Labour claims, but also give us reliable, ‘homegrown’ energy – and lower prices as a result.

But don’t be fooled by this green-fuelled narrative. In truth, Labour’s energy policy is a recipe for higher bills and economic misery.

The first hole in Labour’s green-transition plan is the absence of the hundreds of billions of pounds in investment that it will take to fund it. Starmer originally pledged to borrow £28 billion a year to invest in the rollout of renewable energy, but Labour has progressively reduced the amount it is willing to spend, even while keeping its target of achieving a carbon-free electricity grid by 2030.