Sammy Wilson: The poor will suffer from Boris Johnson’s expensive green energy policies

Not before time, the chancellor is finally kicking back against the expensive green policies being pursued by Boris Johnson, as he virtue signals to the world ahead of the COP27 Conference in Glasgow later this year.

Replacing gas boilers with heat pumps; changing from petrol and diesel to electric vehicles; and closing down coal fired power stations to leave us reliant on expensive wind energy will cost the UK £400bn. A figure which excludes the billons that will be lost in tax revenue from fuel duty.

It is even more worrying that, in order to avoid having to pursued the chancellor to find the finances for his green policies, the prime minister now intends to add a charge onto everyone’s electricity bill to pay for the billions of pounds needed for the rollout of charging points across the country.

This is the most blatant form of making the poor pay to finance Boris’s policy of banning the sale of petrol and diesel cars. It is a policy which will result in the poorest households paying more to benefit the rich, who are the only ones who can afford electric cars and tend to have them as their second or third vehicle anyway.

It is unfair, will increase fuel poverty and at a time when those on lower incomes are already struggling because they have borne the brunt of the economic policies employed to fight Covid, it is going to widen the gap between rich and poor even further.

It is time that not only the chancellor but the wider political class put their foot down on this issue which has now become one of economic justice.

Sammy Wilson DUP MP East Antrim

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