Reform UK is facing questions over its anti-green policies that claim renewable energy is a ‘con’ after it emerged that one of its MPs owns a firm that installs solar panels – including at his own farm.
Nigel Farage‘s party last night launched plans for a clampdown on renewable energy schemes that included taxing people who use produce or host wind and solar energy.
Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice used a press conference to claim green policies were to blame for the deindustrialisation of Britain.
He said that the party would ‘impose a windfall tax, whether it’s wind, whether it’s solar, whether it’s Drax power station, which is another massive con and rip-off.’ It would also ban battery energy storage systems (BESS).
But at the same time Rupert Lowe, the Reform MP for Great Yarmouth, is a director of the firm Lowe & Oliver, a firm of mechanical and electrical contractors.
Among its businesses is installing solar panels and BESS systems – with one of its customers being Mr Lowe’s 500-acre Cotswolds farm.
Ravenswell is a stables that is home to racehorse trainer Fergal O’Brien, and L&O worked with another firm to install enough equipment to generate and store 30 per cent of its annual requirements, cutting the trainer’s bills.
Mr Lowe told the Guardian he was proud of his business interests and MPs should have real ‘life experience’ to inform their actions.
‘My view? Clean energy is incredibly important, but it should be generated in a responsible way that does not bankrupt the country and deindustrialise our economy – particularly at a time when China, India and others are charging through coal,’ he said.
‘Fracking and nuclear are key, and the failure to properly explore those options is a humiliation for the British establishment. Every decision made must have the interests of the British people above all else.’
Reform is facing criticism over its environmental plans, which include blocking farmers who build solar panels on their land from claiming inheritance tax relief.
Mr Tice also claimed the party would impose a ‘windfall tax’ on renewable energy, as he set out Reform’s plans to ‘undo the effects of Net Zero’.
Energy companies and the National Grid are ‘on notice’ to place power cables underground instead of erecting pylons, Mr Tice added.
Giving the example of a project that will see pylons built across East Anglia to connect new wind farms to the grid, Mr Tice claimed burying the power lines would be cheaper, citing an official report.
However, the National Energy System Operator report found the proposal of underground cables was only cheaper in the event all other options were delayed until 2034.
The party’s deputy leader added: ‘But I have to say to those farmers who want to sell out to the renewable industry for solar farms, you can’t have it both ways, folks.
‘You’ve got to make a decision, either you are part of food production, part of food security for our nation, or you’re part of the renewables industry. So you can’t double dip.
‘If you sell out to the renewables industry, then you would not benefit from that inheritance tax relief. That’s only fair.’
Mr Tice claimed net-zero policies were to blame for the deindustrialisation of Britain, and said a Reform government would propose ‘probably a generation tax’ and a ‘special corporation tax rate’ in order to ‘recover’ the money paid in subsidies to renewable generators.
He said: ‘This is the best way that we can help get the bills down and lower the cost of living.
‘The British people need to know there is a direct link between the cost of all these subsidies to the vested interests in the renewables industry and your bills, your cost of living.
‘So we will impose a windfall tax, whether it’s wind, whether it’s solar, whether it’s Drax power station, which is another massive con and rip-off.’
A senior Tory source told Mail Online: ‘Reform abandoning Net Zero is the same as a plumber finding a leak and his solution is to burn the house down.
‘So much for backing Britain – Reform wants to cover us in red tape and tax farmers if they don’t align with Farage.
‘Does Reform not realise how many offshore wind jobs there are in their strongholds?’
