Jeremy Corbyn to announce £50billion plan to blitz Britain with wind turbines and solar panels
The Labour leader wants a 'green revolution' to curb climate change and create 400,000 jobs at the same time
JEREMY Corbyn will today announce a plan to blitz the country with wind turbines and solar panels that will cost taxpayers billions.
The hard left Labour leader’s “green revolution” to curb climate change and create 400,000 jobs at the same time will be unveiled in his annual conference speech.
During his keynote address in Liverpool, the 69 year-old veteran Socialist will also mark the anniversary of the financial crash a decade ago this month by a vicious savaging of Gordon Brown.
He will turn on his Labour chief predecessor for “straining every sinew” to prop up the greedy banks that caused the economic chaos.
Mr Corbyn’s green plan includes doubling the number of onshore wind turbines and a sevenfold increase in offshore wind platforms.
He also wants to triple the number of solar panels, from jumbo farms to individual houses, to see one installed “on all viable UK roofs”.
The plan has been drawn up to hit an ambitious target to slash carbon emissions by 60% in 12 years time.
Mr Corbyn will say today “There is no bigger threat facing humanity than climate change. We must lead by example.
“Our energy plans would make Britain the only developed country outside Scandinavia to be on track to meet our climate change obligations.
But experts last night warned the jumbo package would cost at least £50bn.
And the huge layout will be on top of £12.8bn that Mr Corbyn has already pledged for a massive home insulation drive.
Mr Corbyn’s aides last night admitted the vast turbine and solar push would involve significantly boosting government subsidies handed over to energy companies to build them.
Energy expert Peter Atherton told The Sun: "This is an investment programme that is likely to cost well north of £50 billion.
“And it's difficult to see how Labour can ask the private sector to fund that when they are the same companies who are being told Labour will confiscate their assets."
Mr Corbyn also risks infuriating Gordon Brown by trashing his record during the financial crash.
The former Labour PM once claimed to have “saved the world” with his major interventions with public money to keep the banks afloat during the 2008 crash.
But Mr Corbyn will tell the Liverpool hall: “Ten years ago this month, the whole edifice of greed-is-good, deregulated financial capitalism, lauded for a generation as the only way to run a modern economy, came crashing to earth, with devastating consequences.
”But instead of making essential changes to a broken economic system, the political and corporate establishment strained every sinew to bail out and prop up the system that led to the crash in the first place.”
Seizing on voter fury, he will insist: “People in this country know - they showed that in June last year - that the old way of running things isn’t working any more.
"That's why Labour is offering a radical plan to rebuild and transform Britain."
In a retail offer for voters, Mr Corbyn will also announce a plan to increase the number of hours of subsided childcare, on top of Labour’s standing pledge for 30 free hours.
Mr Corbyn addresses the Labour faithful in bid to unify his party that has been torn apart by anti-Semitism and Brexit fights. It will be his biggest stage yet since his vicious spat with the Jewish community erupted over the summer.
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LABOUR pledged a sales tax on web retailers and free bus travel for under-25s yesterday to try to save the UK’s high streets.
Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey also promised a register of empty shops and free wifi in town centres.
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