I know that people get annoyed when I attack other political parties.

I can understand that, given the scale of the task to clear up the mess that this Labour government inherited and the focus we need to deal with all the issues we face. But I’m afraid sometimes blatantly dangerous political manoeuvring needs to be called out for what it is.

Last week, in announcing their plan to block renewable energy developments, Nigel Farage’s Reform Party effectively declared war on clean energy jobs with policies that would immediately threaten over 79,000 good jobs in thriving industries across the South West and almost one-million jobs nationally.

Today, between 40 and 45 per cent of the UK’s energy mix currently comes from renewable energy. It is this Labour Government’s mission to increase that to 95 per cent as quickly as possible. And Cornwall’s potential in onshore wind, offshore wind, solar, tidal and geothermal presents vast opportunities for quality, sustainable jobs across the Duchy.

The UK clean energy economy is booming thanks to the certainty and stability provided by the Labour Government’s commitment to clean energy.

Since July 2024, over £40-billion of private investment has been announced into the UK’s clean energy industries. As renewable energy is far cheaper than oil and gas, the benefits to heating bills will be tangible. And because we’ll no longer be at the whim of the vagaries of the international gas price, we’ll be able to control domestic pricing to keep those bills permanently lower.

So, good jobs, climate action, lower bills and long-term stability and certainty: they are what's driving this Labour Government’s mission.

However, all of this would be at risk if Nigel Farage implemented his policies of discouraging investment in domestic clean energy, robbing the UK’s engineers, welders and electricians of a new generation of job opportunities.

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice wrote to the bosses of renewable energy companies on July 16 to put them on ‘formal notice’ and has actively welcomed the prospect of clean energy investors pulling out of Britain.

The Climate Change Committee has found that between 135,000 and 725,000 net new jobs could be created in low-carbon sectors by 2030, in areas like offshore wind, hydrogen, grid expansion and heat pump manufacture and installation.

Our Camborne, Redruth and Hayle constituency is home to Kensa, the UK’s largest ground source heat pump manufacturer. These future opportunities could be lost forever under Reform’s anti-investment stance, keeping families on the rollercoaster of insecure and high energy prices.

So why are Reform UK signed up to such an extreme anti-renewables policy? The answer is very simple. Reform UK has received more than £2.3-million from oil and gas interests, highly polluting industries, and climate science deniers since December 2019, amounting to a staggering 92 per cent of the party’s donations.

Farage’s populist party, which campaigns to 'scrap all of net zero', claims to represent ordinary people against ‘out of touch elites’. Yet Reform UK’s official register of donations reveals the party is bankrolled by rich businessmen who reject climate science or make money from polluting industries. Reform UK’s motivation for espousing such damaging policies deserves to be called out time and again, and that is what I intend to do.