Entrepreneur Dale Vince argues that sustainable infrastructure will pay its own debt

Millionaire Labour donor Dale Vince is urging Sir Keir Starmer to borrow billions of pounds to boost net zero and rid fossil fuels from Britain’s energy infrastructure.

The electricity entrepreneur, who severed ties with Just Stop Oil last year as part of his commitment to Labour, said the party must not be “ashamed” of spending vast sums if it wants to instigate change.

Vince’s argument for taking on greater levels of debt comes as Labour rows back on its flagship £28bn pledge for green energy projects over claims it is no longer affordable. The Telegraph has the story.

Starmer confirmed on Thursday that Labour will now spend just £4.7bn a year on its clean energy policy as he blamed the Government for “maxing out the credit card”.

However, Vince argues that Labour should ignore the “public narrative mindset” that “borrowing is bad”, and instead push ahead with plans to spend.

He told The Telegraph: “Borrowing to invest is how you grow economies.

“Borrowing to invest in projects that pay their own debt, meet interest payments and make money on top of that, that is what businesses do.

“The money will allow us to invest in green technology that will pay for itself. For £50bn, we could power the entire country from wind and sun.

“There’s a contrast between borrowing to invest in infrastructure that makes things better for our country and borrowing for tax breaks like Liz Truss proposed to do, which was madness.”

Regardless of Starmer’s green U-turn, Vince remains committed to the Labour cause and says he will keep topping up the party’s coffers until the next election, which is expected later this year.

In 2023 alone, Vince gave £500,000 to Labour through his business Ecotricity, taking his total tally of donations in the past decade to at least £1.5m.

“There is a disparity of funding at the election and I will do whatever I can to close that gap,” he says. “It’s the most important election of our lifetime. It’s our last chance to take decisive action.”

Having also previously donated to the Green Party, Vince decided to back Starmer’s Labour out of a desire to oust the Tories.

A former New Age Traveller who lived off the grid for a decade, Vince made his fortune after founding Ecotricity, the UK’s first green energy company, in 1996.

“Our system will only enable one of the two main parties to form a Government and Labour is by a very long way the greenest option that we have,” he says.

Vince, who refuses to fly or eat meat, insists there is “clear green water” between the Conservatives and Labour, particularly since the Government diluted Britain’s net zero policies last year.

“That is one thing Rishi Sunak has done that I would congratulate him on,” says Vince. “He has gone in an anti-green direction, so at the election, it won’t be an argument at all over which party is the greenest.”

One policy that has infuriated Vince more than most in the past year is the Prime Minister’s decision to expand production in the North Sea.

Having long campaigned against fossil fuels, including participating in Just Stop Oil’s protests last summer, Vince wants Labour to revoke new drilling licenses if it wins power – something Starmer has so far vowed not to do.

Vince accepts that Labour is “trying not to appear too radical and threaten to rip up everything”, although he has doubts over such a cautious approach.

“It’s potentially a mistake as it gives the Tories carte blanche to make a number of commitments that Labour will have to inherit and run with,” he says. “There’s a degree where they can say ‘we will come in and question everything’.”

A cornerstone of his thinking is to expand a windfall tax on oil giants, which chimes with Labour’s ambitions. He says BP and Shell have been able to rake in record profits on the back of unaffordable energy bills but he believes Labour will put a stop to this by expanding the windfall levy.

Given his faith in Labour’s green agenda, Vince says he will not have to restart his donations to Just Stop Oil.

Read the full story here.