Co-leader of Greens denies wind farm pylons hypocrisy

The co-leader of the Green Party has defended himself after the Labour government tried to portray him as a hypocrite on clean energy infrastructure.

- DAVID MADDOX ARCHIE MITCHELL

In an interview with The Independent ahead of his party’s conference in Manchester this weekend, Adrian Ramsay dismissed the personal claims made against him by prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, among others.

The debate has centred around objections to pylons being built through his picturesque Waveney constituency, which straddles the Norfolk/Suffolk border in East Anglia. The 114-mile (184km) scheme is expected to run from Norwich to Tilbury in Essex and would transfer energy generated from offshore wind farms to the South East and London.

Labour used the row to portray the Greens as “hypocrites” who really oppose the clean energy infrastructure needed to move Britain’s energy supply from carbon-based fuel, including gas, coal and oil, to clean alternatives.

Sir Keir said it was “extraordinary” that Mr Ramsay was “opposing vital clean energy infrastructure”. But Mr Ramsay told The Independent the debate is really about Labour seeking “to do the easy things and avoid doing the difficult things”. The plan to push ahead with erecting pylons in his rural constituency is one of these easy answers when other solutions are available, he claimed.

Mr Ramsay added: “The question that you are highlighting is around: how do we connect the new wind farms that are in the North Sea to London and the South East, where energy is needed? And there’s a range of ways that you could do that.

“Clearly, we need to connect the energy. But the last [Tory] government and the current [Labour] government have just been pressing ahead with one option, which is to have a new route of pylons that goes through East Anglia.