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A cabinet minister has suggested Rishi Sunak will back down and lift his onshore wind farm ban to avoid a damaging defeat by Conservative rebels.
Grant Shapps, the business secretary, claimed the clash – at least 30 Tory MPs are demanding projects go ahead – is “not really a row” because both sides have the same aim.
“We’re all basically saying the same thing – you need local consent if you’re going to have wind power onshore,” Mr Shapps argued, playing down the significant of the revolt.
In fact, during the Tory leadership race, Mr Sunak vowed never to “relax the ban on onshore wind in England, instead focusing on building more turbines offshore”.
Mr Shapps’ comments strongly suggested a looming U-turn, with the Tory rebels only a handful of votes short of defeating the government with the support of Opposition parties.
Allowing onshore wind farms with “local consent” would almost certainly mean giving the go-ahead in many areas, as public support for the technology grows during the current energy crisis.
Momentum is growing behind the campaign led by Simon Clarke, the levelling up secretary, and supported by two former prime ministers, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
Jake Berry, the former Conservative Party chair and founder of the Northern Research Group of MPs, pointed out Mr Johnson – who once called wind turbines “white satanic mills” – had shifted his view.
“He’s changed his mind on them. I, to a large extent have changed my mind, and I’m going to be supporting Simon Clarke,” he told the BBC on Sunday.
Mr Shapps claimed: “His amendment, which is saying something like local people should have final say, is actually exactly what Rishi said when he last spoke on it”, telling Times Radio: “It’s not really a row.”
Mr Sunak’s tough stance came in July, as he tried to win over a right-wing Tory membership hostile to measures to tackle the climate emergency and leaning towards Ms Truss.
At the time, in the dying days of his premiership, Mr Johnson had announced plans to allow local communities in England to host new turbines in return for cheaper electricity bills.
The vote, an amendment to the flagship Levelling Up Bill, is likely to take place as early as next week, after being delayed to allow ministers to avoid a different damaging clash.
Nearly 50 Conservative MPs want to free local councils from government targets to build new homes, which would be the death knell for a promise to build 300,000 a year.
Mr Shapps also rowed back on his previous criticism that wind turbines are “an eyesore” – arguing that is not the case if they are “done properly”.
“One thing you can do is, you know, remove them often from people’s eyelines. That’s a question of placement,” he told LBC Radio.
“There is onshore power, there will be more onshore power in the future, but it needs to be done with consent of communities who perhaps benefit from some of that power, rather than imposed.”
