Michael Gove's support for onshore wind farms fuels Tory rebellion
Michael Gove has told allies he supports ending the ban on onshore wind farms, leaving Rishi Sunak's Cabinet split on the issue and fuelling a growing Tory rebellion.
The Levelling Up Secretary is understood to have been joined by Grant Shapps, the Business Secretary; and Graham Stuart, the climate change minister, in privately supporting the removal of a Cameron-era prohibition on new turbines.
On Saturday, a band of Tory rebels reached 30 signatories on an amendment to Mr Gove's planning bill that would allow new developments, threatening to inflict a defeat on Mr Sunak in the House of Commons on the issue.
The PM is yet to decide whether to overturn the ban, a decision which some argue would boost the UK's energy security.
The growing prospect of a U-turn would likely dismay other members of the Cabinet, including Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland Secretary; and Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, who have previously opposed onshore wind.
Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has expressed support for new wind farms in the past, but is not understood to have pushed for them during the latest rebellion.
It comes as Britain's biggest generator of renewable electricity warned that Mr Hunt's tax raid on the sector will squeeze energy supplies this winter.
Alistair Phillips-Davies, chief executive of the £19 billion wind-farm and hydroelectric dam owner SSE, told The Telegraph that the £14.2 billion windfall tax on electricity generators imposed in the Autumn Statement meant it might be unaffordable to run some of its dams at full capacity.
Amid growing dissent among MPs, the Prime Minister has instructed his whips to canvass opinion on onshore wind this weekend.
While Mr Gove and Mr Shapps are understood to be privately supportive of the reintroduction of wind farms, they are also concerned the policy will be unpopular with Conservative MPs and voters.
An ally of Mr Gove said he would “look to engage constructively with colleagues” on the issue.
The developments have been effectively banned since 2016, and Whitehall sources said concerns remain about their lower efficiency compared with offshore developments and local opposition to their construction.
In an interview in the Telegraph, the Tory MP leading an independent review of net zero signalled that it was likely to back onshore wind in some form.
Chris Skidmore - who also revealed he is standing down at the next election - said: “I personally feel that we need to look at every opportunity to investigate renewable and clean technologies and how we can deploy them further and faster.”
While Mr Skidmore insisted he did not want to prejudge the conclusions his review would reach on the matter, he said that “since the moratorium, public opinion has fundamentally shifted on onshore wind”.
“The question now is not whether onshore wind should happen, but how onshore wind is delivered, and for me, the biggest policy question that I'm interested in is how you create community consent," he said.
The rebels also include Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Alok Sharma, the former COP 26 president.
Mr Sunak is not expected to accept their amendment, which was tabled by Simon Clarke, the former levelling up secretary, but sources close to discussions said he could propose a similar amendment of his own, allowing him to satisfy supporters of onshore wind without being seen to cave to backbench pressure.
A Downing Street source said he was “committed to reducing people’s bills and having more forms of renewables” but accepted the need to “bring people with us on these issues as we transition to net zero”.
A second government source said: “We are not throwing anything out and we are not deliberately keeping everything in. We have to look at everything in terms of the wider energy portfolio.”
