Boris Johnson has been warned by cabinet ministers that he will face a mass revolt from Conservative MPs if he allows for the construction of new onshore wind farms.
As the government prepares to unveil its plan for greater energy independence next week, several cabinet ministers are sceptical of the push for onshore wind, fearing local opposition.
Planning rules were significantly tightened by David Cameron in 2015, effectively blocking more onshore turbines, but Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, said that the government must look at liberalising the planning system for onshore wind.
One cabinet minister told The Times: “I don’t want it. My constituents don’t want it . . . The last thing we need is another revolt from Tory MPs.”
Separately, Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary, is understood to have concerns about further onshore wind, although planning is devolved in Scotland.
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The scale of the opposition could be significant: eight members of the cabinet, including Priti Patel and Nadine Dorries, signed a letter opposing onshore wind in 2012 when they were backbenchers.
Kwarteng believes that public opposition to onshore wind farms has declined. “I think people are much more open to renewable energy,” he told the i earlier this week. “I think they realise that that’s part of the answer [to] Putin and other countries controlling oil and gas.”
Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, has also backed onshore wind.
Asked this week if the prime minister agreed with Kwarteng, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “I think the public has recognised the need to diversify our energy supply and the importance of having sustainable energy sources, which move away from the volatility we see from non-renewables.”
In 2013 Johnson wrote that wind farms could not “pull the skin off a rice pudding”.
