The Green Party has said the policy is 'dressed up as a special offer' but will help wealthier people
Reform used a press conference at Heathrow Airport today to criticise net zero policies and announce their plan to scrap Air Passenger Duty on short-haul flights if they won power.
Robert Jenrick, who Nigel Farage recently appointed as Reform’s ‘shadow chancellor’, said that scrapping Air Passenger Duty (APD) would save families £45 on international flights, or £48 in the UK.
The tax is charged based on the distance of the flight. One of APD’s aims is to offset the environmental impact of air travel.
Reform has also announced tax cuts on VAT on domestic fuel and green levies, including the Carbon Price Support and Renewables Obligation, but has not said how it would fund any of these cuts.
Heathrow Airport was a sponsor of Reform UK’s party conference last year, and also donated £36,000 to Farage’s outfit last September.
Responding to a GB News reporter’s question about Labour’s green energy policies, Farage went on a rant about how green energy subsidies are driving up household bills.
Farage stated that household bills have been 15-20% higher for “the best part of two decades” due to these subsidies. He also said that the UK has the most expensive industrial energy prices in the world.
While the UK does have among the highest industrial energy prices in the developed world, this is primarily because the country is more reliant on gas for generating electricity compared to other European countries.
Farage’s solution to this is to say Britain must produce its own oil and gas so people’s bills are cheaper.
Green MP Hannah Spencer pointed out that drilling for oil and gas in the UK isn’t a silver bullet.
Spencer said: “The Tories, Reform and right-wing media are deliberately failing to explain that UK oil and gas are priced on global markets, and new fields take years to deliver while adding only limited supply.
“Hundreds of licences issued between 2010 and 2024 have delivered the equivalent of just 36 days’ extra gas.”
On the Air Passenger Duty plan, Green Party deputy leader Rachel Millward, said: “Abolishing Air Passenger Duty is another unfunded giveaway which would largely help wealthier people but dressed up as a special offer to families flying off to Spain for their summer hols.
“This policy would mostly benefit the 15% of people who take around 70% of flights from the UK and offer no support at all to the estimated 50% of people who take zero flights in any given year.
“A much fairer solution for both people and climate, advocated by the Green Party, is to offer one flight a year at low or zero tax and then apply a frequent flyer levy on any additional flights – a levy that would increase with each extra flight taken in any given year.”
Hannah Martin, co-director at Green New Deal Rising, said: “Anyone who has paid attention to the news at all over the last week knows that dependence on fossil fuels only leads to skyrocketing energy prices, leaving British households at the mercy of volatile international energy markets and the whims of strongmen like Trump and Putin.
“The only way to get off the rollercoaster of fossil fuels is to invest in clean, cheap, reliable energy like wind and solar.
“We’ve just had another stark report out from the UN detailing just how real and urgent the climate crisis is. Ditching green policies that lower bills, reduce pollution and make our communities safer and healthier, is exactly what I’d expect from a party funded by the fossil fuel industry and billionaires.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward doesn't have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you.
You can support hard-hitting journalism that holds the right to account, provides a forum for debate among progressives, and covers the stories the rest of the media ignore. Donate today.