The U.K. government wants to legislate for a total ban on fracking in a bid to draw out battle lines with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Speaking on the last day of the Labour conference in Liverpool, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband promised to ban the controversial practice and send “frackers packing.”
“Fracking will not take a penny off bills,” Miliband told delegates. “It will not create long-term sustainable jobs, it will trash our climate commitments, and it is dangerous and deeply harmful to our natural environment.”
The announcement is the latest attempt by ministers to strike a more combative tone and draw clear dividing lines between the government and Reform, which is leading the national polls and has pledged to lift the de facto ban on fracking.
