Mandelson Criticises Miliband Energy Plan

Ed Miliband's new energy policy risks taking the Labour Party backwards in the eyes of voters, Lord Mandelson has warned.

Labour's former business secretary said the party leader's pledge to freeze energy bills could undo the industrial policy he worked hard to shape under Tony Blair.

"At the business department I tried to move on from the conventional choice in industrial policy between state control and laissez-faire," Lord Mandelson said.

"The industrial activism I developed showed that intervention in the economy - government doing some of the pump priming of important markets, sectors and technologies - was a sensible approach."

But following Mr Miliband's speech yesterday at the party's annual conference, he added: "I believe that perceptions of Labour policy are in danger of being taken backwards."

Energy companies were unsurprisingly united in their criticism of the plan, which went down well with the party's grassroots at the conference in Brighton.

Mr Miliband's policy went down well with core Labour supporters

Neil Woodford, a fund manager at Invesco Perpetual, the biggest shareholder in British Gas owner Centrica, labelled the policy "economic vandalism."

He told Sky's Jeff Randall Live: "Any chance of a serious business investing in this sector has been killed by Miliband's statement.

This could destroy up to £200bn of much-needed investment. The political risk is simply too high. Worse still, there will be a huge negative impact on the wider UK economy."

Mr Miliband has defended the proposals, saying he was doing "the right thing by the country".

"My job is to stand up for the public interest, not the interest of any one company or any six companies but the whole of the public, the whole of this country, and that's what I have done in the policy I've talked about," he said.

"It makes me think of the banks. The banks used to threaten, the banks used to conjure up scare stories, the banks used to talk about the impact of regulation, and the Conservative Party supported them.

"Actually we should have had tougher regulation, and so it makes me think that actually we've got to do the right thing by the country, and that's what I'm going to do."

And the policy was supported by another fellow New Labour architect - Alastair Campbell.

The former party spin doctor said in a tweet: "Peter M wrong re energy policy being shift to left. It is putting consumer first v anti competitive force. More New Deal than old Labour."

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