Labour can go 'quicker' in tackling climate change once in office, says Ed Miliband

The former Labour leader, who now heads up the party’s climate change policies, has said that green is now the “ethical and economic choice” with the private sector “queuing up” to move from fossil fuels.

“I think we can go a lot quicker, even than we're saying, once we get going,” said Mr Miliband in an interview with The Yorkshire Post.

“I think we can be really fast on this, if we get the chance, but that's up to the voters obviously.”

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post in Misson, in the Tory seat of Bassetlaw, Mr Miliband said that Labour is clear about what its green energy policies will be in government, following the announcement of a publicly-owned energy company at its Conference in Liverpool last month.

“It's not a it's not a quick fix, but what I think is so interesting, and this is my kind of nerdiness slightly here, but the cost of solar energy has fallen by 89 per cent in a decade.

“If I spoke to you a decade or more ago, I would have said to you, the ethical choice is to go green.

“Now, it’s totally different, now the ethical and the economic choice is green,” he said.

Mr Miliband is still cautious about Labour’s chance of victory, despite polling putting the party some 30 points ahead of the Conservatives.

“I am the eternal warrior against complacency, for my own historical reasons apart from anything else,” he said.

“So I'm certainly not going to sort of anticipate how many years in government or anything like that.

Suggestions following the sacking of Kwasi Kwarteng by the Prime Minister has fueled speculation that the Prime Minister’s position is now untenable, and that a “unity candidate” such as Rishi Sunak, could be selected by MPs to take over as leader.

However, when asked if he thinks any Tory leader worries him, Mr Miliband feels the party can take any of them on.

“The whole Conservative Party is complicit in what's happened in the last 12 years,” he said.

“One thing Kwasi Karteng was right about was that we were locked in a low growth, high tax economy. And Rishi Sunak was absolutely part of that.

“They've been in power for 12 years. You've got low growth, you've got public services in a terrible state and the highest tax burden in history. That's what Conservative government has done. And so whoever we face, frankly, they will have to defend that record.

“You get to a point where you can't keep changing prime ministers,” he adds.

"It's like they bet the house on one prime minister and then they sort of lose their shirt, and then they think let's borrow some more money to buy a house on the next prime minister. How many times can they do that?

"The Conservatives are very concerned about the trashing of the Conservative Party. I’m concerned about the trashing of the country.”