Lib Dem leader Farron to demand a fresh industrial revolution led by a new Green Investment Bank
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron is to call for the government to create a new Green Investment Bank in a speech demanding a new industrial revolution.
Speaking in Central London tomorrow, Farron will outline plans for a new “Victorian” era of building, warning that Britain risks being “surpassed and relegated” without action.
The Lib Dems are constructing plans to cut the UK's carbon footprint, and bemoan the government's controversial efforts to sell off the Green Investment Bank, and suggest the UK must create a successor institution to remain in public hands.
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Farron will also make the eye-catching suggestion to block the sale of diesel cars by 2040 as part of a push for electric vehicles.
“When Ed Davey and the Liberal Democrats ran the Department for Energy and Climate Change the wrestling match was between us and the Treasury, and we usually won. Now it is between Greg Clark and Number 10, and nice guy though he is, he loses every day,” Farron is expected to say.
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The Lib Dem leader will says that low carbon plans should be central to the UK's industrial future.
“It is a new industrial revolution. We can do as the Victorians did and lead it, prosper from it, and stand tall across the globe as a consequence,” Farron will say.