Ed Miliband has been accused of hypocrisy after sending a health and safety inspector on a 10,000-mile plane trip to check out hotels for an upcoming climate summit. The Energy Secretary, whose dogged commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 has put him at odds with others in his party, is under fire for sending an employee on a polluting flight to Brazil to scout out accommodation for a summit on climate change. Civil servant John Gaunt shared photos online of the taxpayer-funded 46-hour round trip, documenting the “incredible experience” he had exploring the city of Belem in northern Brazil.
The British delegation will travel to the South American country for the United Nations COP30 summit in November, with Mr Gaunt dispatched to carry out “health and safety checks” on local hotels in advance of the trip. The government employee admitted he felt life had “dealt him a good hand”, but Miliband critics have slammed the move – which is estimated to have racked up 11,500 kg of carbon emissions – as an ill-advised “jolly in the jungle”.
“In an effort to ‘save the planet’, Jet Ed sent a civil servant to Brazil to do a job that could have been completed with a simple Google search,” deputy leader of Reform UK, Richard Tice, told The Sun.
“The flying green hypocrite has spent over £40,000 on flights in just six months, racked up a carbon footprint more than 12 times that of the average Briton, and outspent his Tory predecessors tenfold,” Tice continued.
“All this travel to promote an agenda that will do nothing to reduce global carbon emissions, while raising energy bills for hardworking Britons and further damaging small businesses and economic growth.” he added.
Shadow Energy Secretary Andrew Bowie added that there seemed to be “one rule for them and another for hardworking families being asked to tighten their belts”, slamming Miliband’s “jetsetting civil servants” for their “jolly in the jungle”.
“Labour need to start practicing what they preach because it’s ‘plane hypocrisy’,” Bowie added.
Miliband’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero came under fire from the Government’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) this month after warnings that sky-high electricity bills were putting households off switching to green alternatives including electric cars and heat pumps.
The Energy Secretary’s climate strategy has been at odds with the priorities of his Labour colleagues over the last year, clashing with Rachel Reeves over the expansion of Heathrow Airport and attracting criticism from former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair, whose eponymous institute has argued that calls for the immediate phase-out of fossil fuels were “doomed to fail”.
A spokesperson for the Department of Energy and Net Zero said: “It is in Britain’s national self-interest to attend international summits.
“Any carbon footprint is dwarfed by the carbon prize of delivering our agenda. The health and safety of our staff, while attending these events, is paramount.”