Blame game Experts say Tories wrong to cite net zero

Ed Miliband is being blamed unfairly for the problems ravaging the steel industry, experts said yesterday.

- Helena Horton

Some parliamentarians and media commentators claim the energy secretary's net zero policies and lack of support for a mine in Cumbria have made the power and coal used to make steel too costly.

The shadow business secretary, Andrew Griffith, told MPs debating the steel crisis on Saturday: "No one is more responsible for this than the energy secretary and the prime minister who appointed him."

The broadcaster Andrew Neil blamed Miliband and what he described as "net zero nonsense", saying: "And now Miliband has the audacity to pose as the saviour of British steelworkers.

In truth, the British political class has shamefully failed them, none more so than net zero zealot Miliband." Several news articles blamed Miliband for the perilous state of the Scunthorpe site taken into government control at the weekend.

But Prof Rob Gross, the director of the UK Energy Research Centre, said: "The clean power mission can actually help save the steel industry."