Sir Keir Starmer wants to have “a fight” with the Conservative Party on his target to spend £28bn a year on green projects by 2030.
He told Wilfred Frost on Sky News: “It’s absolutely clear to me that the Tories are trying to weaponise this issue, the 28 billion, etc.
“It’s a fight I want to have, if we can have a fight going into the election between an incoming Labour government that wants to invest in the future long-term strategy that will lower our bills and give us energy independence versus stagnation, more of the same under this government.
“If they want that fight on borrow to invest, I’m absolutely up for that.”
Politics latest: Sir Keir Starmer faces questions as election year kicks off
Sir Keir did add that his first mission was to grow the economy, and he reiterated that any fiscal pledge would need to adhere to his party’s fiscal rules.
The party has previously watered down the £28bn pledge – saying it was a target rather than a commitment.
Sir Keir was asked if it was “irresponsible” to have a “trade off” between green policy and the economy.
He told the Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme on Sky News: “No, I don’t.
“Because the government is trying to pretend that the date on which an incoming Labour government signs a particular cheque, is what matters. What matters is clean power by 2030, keeping to those targets.
“I’m not prepared to move that date.”
The Labour leader last week launched his general election campaign, with a vote likely to take place this year.
Speaking near Bristol on Thursday, he rejected that he was “cautious” and pitching himself as simply a way to end the Conservative’s time in power.
Sir Keir added that the “change that we are offering, the difference that we want to make, between 14 years of decline and a decade of national renewal, they are fundamentally different things”.
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