A union boss has warned Britain could face Spain-like power blackouts unless the government goes back to the drawing board on its net zero plans.
Gary Smith, the GMB general secretary, last week launched a blistering attack on Labour's North Sea policies, accusing the party of "closing down Aberdeen".
Now, he's launched a second damning attack on the government, this time in The Times.
Smith urged prime minster Sir Keir Starmer to ignore the "false prophets of climate fundamentalism" and rethink his administration's net zero plans.
Writing for The Times, Smith said the government's plans to ban North Sea exploration licences would “accelerate the decline of domestic oil and gas production and increase our dependency on gas imports”.
Branding the 2030 net zero target unrealistic, Smith also cautioned it could lead to "catastrophic" blackouts like those seen recently in Spain and Portugal, which he said should be a "massive wake-up call".
Smith said: “I’d like to think our government, at all levels, was asking the critical question, ‘What if this happens to us?’ Because it could have.
“The real questions are about wider national energy resilience and security of supply, and how both should be at the forefront of governments’ net-zero plans. My union believes the existing trajectory risks putting the energy cart before the industrial horse.”