Claire Coutinho warns Labour making Britain ‘reliant on foreign dictators’ with ‘clearly mad’ policies

Claire Coutinho has warned that Labour is making Britain “reliant on foreign dictators” with its energy policies. Speaking to GB News, the Tory Shadow Energy Secretary shared frustration over the Government’s “clearly mad” decision-making. “If you look at Labour's policies, they want to ban North Sea oil and gas licences,” Ms Coutinho began.“They're continuing to have carbon taxes on refineries, which are driving them out of existence. TRENDING Stories Videos Your Say “All of those things are making our struggles worse,” she stressed. To make matters worse, the Shadow Energy Secretary said the decisions were “making us more reliant on foreign dictators”. “We're going to be relying on Putin for his oil, she added. We're going to rely on China for coal-powered manufacturing and on India for jet fuel and diesel.Last week, it was announced that the Government would reduce sanctions on Russian diesel and jet fuel imported into Britain, so long as the crude oil was refined elsewhere.The move, undoing work to pile financial pressure on Vladimir Putin, was prompted by fears of fuel shortages in the wake of the Iran war.“None of those things adds up to a successful country... Whether it's petrol, jet fuel, or diesel, we are starting to feel the effects of not being able to produce things in our own country,” Ms Coutinho stressed. She described policies, such as increasing taxes on petrol, as “clearly mad”. However, GB News Breakfast host Ellie Costello was keen to challenge the Shadow Energy Secretary on her party’s previous policies in Government. LATEST DEVELOPMENTSEnergy bills to jump more than £200 a year from July as price cap rises 13 per centTony Blair savages Keir Starmer's 'lack of coherent plan' over proposals to rejoin EU and Net ZeroFirefighters rush to Golders Green as one of Britain's largest Jewish supermarkets erupts in flames“I'm a little bit puzzled because you're here to talk to us about the Conservative Party pledging to reverse the net zero ban on air conditioning in new homes, which would be very welcome for people, especially in this heat wave that we're experiencing at the moment. “But this is a ban that was brought in by the then Conservative Housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, back in 2021. So, are you admitting that this is a Conservative Government failure?”“I wasn't in Government then,” Ms Coutinho responded, but she added that she was now focused on looking at “where the Conservatives got things wrong”. “We've had this very miserabilist approach to energy, which says that using energy is somehow a bad thing, she said. “That's why you have this ban on air conditioning, which came in in 2021, because the idea was that it used too much energy. “That's why you've only got 3 per cent of British homes have air con, compared to something like 90 per cent for Japan, Korea and the US. “You don't have high-growth countries which have low energy usage,” she stressed.“We have to completely fix our mindset when it comes to energy. “We need to make sure that energy is cheap, abundant and reliable, and we have to allow people to use it,” the Shadow Energy Secretary said. Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter