Reform UK slam solar energy – then miss the meeting to stop it

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Reform UK has received millions of pounds in donations from climate deniers and fossil fuel sources, so it is not a surprise that Nigel Farage wants to make net zero the “next Brexit”.

The party is especially opposed to green energy projects in Lincolnshire, where senior figures have spoken out against solar panel farms — large installations of renewable electricity in the countryside.

Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy chair and the MP for Boston and Skegness, promised that his Lincolnshire colleagues would oppose solar farms “every step of the way”. “Reform control the Mayoralty and County Council in Lincolnshire with myself as local MP,” he wrote on X. “If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons, think again.”

Which makes it all a bit embarrassing that on Monday, two of Reform’s top councillors missed an important date to discuss a new solar panel project.

Reform’s councillor Barry Daish, chair of the planning and regulation committee, and his vice-chair Carl Edgoose-Zagorskiy were absent from their own meeting.

“It’s not really satisfactory,” said Martin Hill, a Tory councillor in the chamber. “This is not really an acceptable situation to have… One would hope either things are resolved next time, or one of them can manage to take it, or consider their position.”

When contacted by HOPE not hate, Cllr Daish said he had not been in council meetings “for a while” due to a health issue. Cllr Edgoose-Zagorskiy said his absence was in line with protocol.

Council sources in Lincolnshire and the other nine local authorities controlled by Reform have complained that only a few of their new colleagues are competent. The others are absent, or worse: clueless. “They had no idea what the job actually entailed,” said a source at a different Reform-led council. “Now they are like rabbits in the headlights.”

On the subject of solar energy, it is proving to be an embarrassment for Reform UK, particularly in Lincolnshire. The party says green energy schemes are “net stupid”, however as recently as 2022 — before it received £200,000 from climate deniers like Terence Mordaunt — Reform promised a climate policy of “net smart”, developing solar energy and other renewables. What changed, other than enormous donations such as the £100,000 from Holly Valance, who has dismissed the climate crisis as “cow farts”?

It is also embarrassing for Andrea Jenkyns, Reform’s mayor for Greater Lincolnshire who in May said: “We do not want mass solar farm developments desecrating our farmland.” Back in 2017, when she was a Tory MP, she praised a 20-acre solar farm opening in her West Yorkshire constituency. She said it was “an important and valuable project”, adding that it was “great to promote fantastic leadership and innovation in our area”.

Meanwhile Richard Tice (who earlier this year posted “Stop Solar in Lincolnshire”) runs a commercial property company and told his shareholders that he was saving “hundreds of tonnes of CO2 per annum” by installing solar panels on his buildings. Both Jenkyns and Tice attended an anti-solar protest in March in Lincolnshire.

On the other hand, Reform’s Luke Campbell, shortly after his election to mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire — having said net zero was unachievable — declared he would support green energy jobs in his region.

Maybe they could make up their minds…