Net zero will be the new Brexit for the Conservatives, the leader of Reform UK said as he vowed to exploit Tory divisions at May’s local elections.
The majority of Tory MPs were “out of touch” with their voters over climate policy, said Richard Tice.
Mr Tice’s party will stand around 120 candidates in the local elections as well as a candidate in the Wakefield by-election. All will campaign on the benefits of fracking and restarting exploration in the North Sea.
He predicted that divisions within the Tories over net zero “will become as big as Brexit or bigger” in the coming months.
“It will be a seismic crisis for them because of what will happen to people’s bills,” he told The Telegraph. “Some Tories in the shires get bamboozled by the green lobby. But most of the members are completely in our camp – cut taxes, go for growth, become self-reliant and use our own shale gas.”
Earlier this year, The Telegraph reported that senior Cabinet ministers believe the Government should rethink its net zero plans as the country faces its biggest cost-of-living crisis in a generation.
The campaign group Vote Power Not Poverty, which Mr Tice co-founded, will publish a report accusing the Government of being “asleep at the wheel” by allowing energy production to fall to its lowest level in half a century.
Mr Tice, who said he hoped his candidates would take votes away from the Tories, added: “The Government will have to do something very significant, otherwise you are going to see millions of people not able to pay their bills.
“We are going to be focusing very hard over the next few years in the ‘Red Wall’ areas – we are polling well in those parts of the country. Our plan involves making things better for people, cutting taxes, cutting bills, and more growth.”
The businessman and former MEP replaced Nigel Farage as leader of Reform UK in March last year. Before joining the Brexit Party, Reform UK’s predecessor, he was a Conservative Party donor.
Reform UK will this week announce a candidate for the Wakefield by-election, triggered by the resignation of Imran Ahmad Khan, who was found guilty of child sex offences earlier this month.
“We will be the only candidate there campaigning on a manifesto of cutting taxes hard now, for shale gas, and the best way to level up is to use your own energy,” Mr Tice said. “In a sense this is the first Red Wall seat that has come up – we will be going for it very hard.”
