A general view of a wind farm
TORY ministers are set for “another screeching U-turn” over plans to drop a ban against onshore wind farms, campaigners said today.
Greenpeace UK said the government is “finally beginning to realise the obvious” after Business Secretary Grant Shapps hinted that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak could back down amid a growing Conservative rebellion over the issue.
Despite once branding the structures “white satanic mills,” former PM Boris Johnson is reported to be among 30 Tory MPs backing ex-Cabinet minister Simon Clarke’s pro-wind amendment to the Levelling Up Bill.
The move, also allegedly supported by Mr Johnson’s short-lived successor Liz Truss and current Levelling-Up Secretary Michael Gove, would allow wind farms in rural areas where there is community consent.
Mr Shapps claimed that this is also Downing Street’s policy, but the PM actually vowed to continue the Tory moratorium on new onshore wind — imposed in 2015 — during his first party leadership bid over the summer.
The Business Secretary attempted to play down the significance of the latest revolt, which follows reports that Mr Sunak has also dropped plans to reform planning laws amid growing unrest in his party, saying he is “completely mystified” by headlines about it.
He told Times Radio: “It’s the most extraordinarily overwritten story I’ve read.”
But Green Party MP Caroline Lucas tweeted: “Yet another screeching U-turn from a PM who has failed time after time to show climate leadership.”
Greenpeace UK policy director Doug Parr urged the government to “put facts before ideology and scrap one of the most absurd and damaging policies ever introduced.”
The “necessary but tiny step” was welcomed by Labour for a Green New Deal co-founder Chris Saltmarsh.
However, he told the Morning Star that public ownership of energy production is needed to free Britain from its “slow, parasitic private market.”
MORNINGSTAR
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