Green campaign slogan ‘being ignored’ by Conservatives

The Conservative campaign slogan “vote blue, go green” is being ignored by many of the party’s general election candidates, according to a survey that found that they were much less likely than rivals to favour rapid expansion of renewable energy.

Only 22 per cent of Tory candidates in winnable seats strongly supported Britain’s target — set by the European Union and endorsed by the Conservative leadership — of generating 15 per cent of Britain’s energy from renewable sources by 2020. Labour candidates were more than twice as likely (56 per cent) to express strong support for the target. Almost three quarters (71 per cent) of Liberal Democrat candidates strongly supported the target, according to the survey of 101 election hopefuls from the three main parties.

The survey, carried out by ComRes for RenewableUK, the wind and marine energy trade body, also found that Conservative candidates were much less likely to support wind farms.

Only 7 per cent of the Tory candidates agreed strongly with the statement “expansion of onshore wind [farms] is essential if the UK is to deliver on its renewable energy targets”. The statement was strongly supported by 44 per cent of Labour candidates and 71 per cent of Liberal Democrat candidates. A total of 54 per cent of Conservative hopefuls, but no Labour candidates, disagreed with the statement. Among Liberal Democrats, 14 per cent disagreed.

The Conservative manifesto supports onshore wind farms and seeks to overcome local opposition by pledging that communities that accepted them would keep the additional business rates they generated for six years. The manifesto also says: “Britain is uniquely placed to be the world’s first low-carbon economy: we have the natural resources to generate wind and wave power.”

Labour candidates were twice as likely as Tory ones to support an acceleration of the planning process to reduce delays in building large energy infrastructure projects.

A RenewableUK spokesman said: “This poll suggests that there is a certain amount of disconnect between the voters and political candidates. Year after year, independent polls suggest that over 80 per cent of the people in this country support further deployment of wind energy. Politicians need to be told that Nimbys don’t represent how British people actually think.”

Source: The Times Online, By Ben Webster, Environment Editor , http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7099274.ece