Climate Tories stoking division over net zero, Miliband to say

The government is stoking the fires of the culture wars over the UK's net zero target instead of addressing the urgency of the climate crisis, Labour's Ed Miliband will say today.

- Fiona Harvey

He will make a pitch directly to Conservative voters who are concerned that the party has made major U-turns on cutting greenhouse gas emissions amid increasingly anti-green rhetoric.

"If the tree on their logo was real, no doubt they would cut it down and challenge Labour to support them," the shadow energy and net zero secretary will say of the Tories in a speech at a Green Alliance thinktank event in London this morning.

It is the first time Miliband has made a public speech on the climate crisis since the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, decided to cut back on the party's pledge to spend £28bn a year on cutting emissions and building a green economy, a move widely criticised by green campaigners.