Sir Keir Starmer was in his comfort zone on Thursday, waxing lyrical about one of his favourite “missions”.
Speaking at the government’s summit on energy security, the prime minister doubled down on plans for clean energy, which he reaffirmed will boost, not harm, national security – in the face of attacks on net zero policies from the Trump administration and Reform UK.
He said we are “living through a new era of global instability” – that hits locally.
Carers, nurses and teachers are “working harder and harder for the pound in their pocket, but feeling at the same time that they have less control of their lives”.
The problem is Britain’s “overexposure” to the “rollercoaster of international fossil fuel markets” – which leaves people vulnerable to price spikes and vulnerability sparked anywhere in the world.
Homegrown clean energy is the answer, he said. It’s the “only way to take back control of our energy system, deliver energy security and bring down bills for the long term”.
And he’s not alone. Energy analysts broadly agree that more UK-generated clean power protects people from price shocks from energy imported from abroad.
So do most of the other 55-odd governments who attended his summit in London.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in her speech that “as our energy dependence on fossil fuels goes down, our security goes up”.
The glaring exception on Thursday was America.
Its delegate to the summit, acting assistant secretary Tommy Joyce, told the conference that abundant energy “raises people out of poverty and brings health, wealth, and opportunity”.
Few would dispute that.
But he also said climate policies had led to “energy scarcity” that “harms human lives” and attacked “so-called renewables” and the “net zero agenda”.
He was apparently happy to overlook the danger posed by fossil fuels, from air…
