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Jonathan Leake

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London
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Journalist specialising in energy, environment, climate and science. Currently energy editor at the Daily Telegraph, London.
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Articles by Jonathan Leake

Britain will need up to £240bn of net zero upgrades

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Verified
Britain's electricity network will require up to £240bn of upgrades to support clean power targets, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has admitted. In new estimates released by the Government, the cost of building new pylons and power lines will skyrocket in the next 24 years to achieve the Government's net zero ambitions. The energy department has already warned that grid upgrades will cost £80bn by 2030.
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Britain will need up to £240bn of net zero upgrades

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| MSN Verified
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Miliband’s net zero rules ‘holding back AI’

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Verified
Ed Miliband has imposed restrictions on new gas-fired power stations - Isabel Infantes/Reuters Ed Miliband's net zero rules risk scuppering Britain's push to become a global leader in artificial intelligence, an industry expert has warned. Paul Stein, the chief executive of Floral Energy, which specialises in providing power for data centres, said the Energy Secretary's restrictions on new gas-fired power stations meant there would not be enough electricity for AI data centres.
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The net zero bungle that has left Britain paying France to take our power

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| MSN UK Verified
It's the Ed Miliband paradox: why does Britain have among the highest power prices in Europe when we have so much electricity that suppliers have to pay customers to use it? It was a question repeated across the energy industry last week after power prices briefly turned negative, meaning customers and countries abroad were paid to use surplus electricity generated in Britain rather than having to pay for it.
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Russia forced to import fuel after Ukraine refinery strikes Original

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Finance UK Verified
Ukraine successfully targeted oil and gas infrastructure across Russia in recent weeks, including Gazprom Neft’s Moscow refinery - AFP via Getty Images Russia has been forced to start importing fuel after Ukraine launched a barrage of drone attacks against key oil refineries. Typically a major exporter, Russia has now resorted to shipping in gasoline from Asia to avoid fuel shortages across the country. Its first cargo is set to be delivered this month.
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Oil and gas staff forced to take pay cuts to work in green energy

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Verified
GMB says people losing their jobs in the North Sea are not gaining employment in the green energy sector - Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images Oil and gas workers are being forced to take significant pay cuts to work in renewables, one of the UK's biggest trade unions has told MPs. The claims by the GMB union, which represents thousands of oil and gas workers, cast doubt on Ed Miliband's claims of a "fair energy transition" for employees.
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El Niño heatwave to send household energy bills soaring

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
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Shetland Islands could be linked by undersea tunnels

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Verified
Jonathan Leake Fri, June 12, 2026 at 10:04 AM UTC 4 min read Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Shetland comprises an archipelago of about 100 islands, of which 16 are inhabited - istock/lucentius Shetland is seeking £2bn of taxpayer cash to build a network of undersea tunnels that can link five of its biggest islands.
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Stop building wind farms, EDF boss urges Miliband

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Verified
Jonathan Leake Thu, June 11, 2026 at 2:31 PM UTC 4 min read Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Simone Rossi, the chief executive of EDF Energy, said demand for electricity in the UK had fallen by a fifth in the last two decades Britain should stop building wind farms because the country has too much electricity, the UK boss of EDF Energy has said.
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What Starmer could plunder from net zero’s £63bn 'war chest'

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Miliband’s £63bn net zero ‘war chest’ at risk of a Starmer defence raid

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Verified
How can Britain pay for defence? That question is bedevilling Labour. The defence investment plan has been repeatedly delayed by wrangling over how exactly to fund the billions of pounds needed to rearm in a more dangerous world. Rachel Reeves has suggested that taxes must rise to fund defence. This week she described tax rises as a "better" option than piling on more borrowing. Yet there is a third way: cutting spending elsewhere.
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Fire risk warnings over Miliband’s planned plug-in solar boom

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Verified
Ed Miliband's plan to legalise plug-in solar panels is a threat to health and safety and could unleash a wave of electric fires across UK households. Safety campaigners have warned that pumping power the "wrong way" through domestic circuits could raise the risk of electric shocks and domestic fires. The Energy Secretary has held talks with supermarkets including Lidl to start selling plug-in solar panels to households as part of his net zero push.
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Fire risk warnings over Miliband’s planned plug-in solar boom

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo News Malaysia Verified
Ed Miliband’s plan to legalise plug-in solar panels is a threat to health and safety and could unleash a wave of electric fires across UK households. Safety campaigners have warned that pumping power the “wrong way” through domestic circuits could raise the risk of electric shocks and domestic fires. The Energy Secretary has held talks with supermarkets including Lidl to start selling plug-in solar panels to households as part of his net zero push.
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Miliband’s clean energy tsar quits Labour’s flagship net zero quango

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Miliband’s clean energy tsar quits Labour’s flagship net zero quango Original

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Finance UK Verified
Jürgen Maier was appointed to set up Great British Energy, which Labour’s manifesto pledged would ‘cut bills for good’ - Anthony Devlin/Bloomberg Jürgen Maier, Ed Miliband’s clean power tsar, has quit Labour’s flagship energy quango after just two years in the job. Mr Maier was appointed in 2024 to set up Great British Energy (GBE), which Labour’s election manifesto pledged would “cut bills for good” and create jobs “in every corner of the UK”.
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Oil trading giant makes £16m a day amid Iran energy crisis

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
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Oil trading giant makes £16m a day amid Iran energy crisis

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Finance UK Verified
Richard Holtum, Trafigura’s chief executive officer, says ‘periods of disruption reinforce our relevance to customers’ - Danielle Villasana/Bloomberg The oil trading giant Trafigura made more than £16m a day at the start of this year as war in Iran sent fuel prices soaring. The commodities trading house reaped $4bn (£3bn) profits in the six months to the end of March, allowing it to fund a record $3bn in payouts to its traders.
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Oil trading giant makes £16m a day amid Iran energy crisis

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Argentina threatens British oil prospector in the Falklands Original

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Finance UK Verified
Argentina has never relinquished its claims over the islands, which it knows as the Islas Malvinas - Posnov/Moment RF Argentina has threatened to retaliate against a UK energy company because of its plans to drill a giant new oil field close to the Falkland Islands. Rockhopper Exploration and Israeli business Navitas plan to start drilling the Sea Lion offshore deposit north of the Falklands within months, potentially sending oil back to Europe and the UK from early 2028.
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Ministers under fire for wasting £800m on heat pump subsidies

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By Eir Nolsoe Verified, Jonathan Leake Verified
| MSN Verified
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Energy bills to rise by £75 to cover debts of struggling households

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
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Quango costs balloon after Miliband net zero push

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Verified
Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, has pushed for the UK to have almost entirely clean power by 2030 - Thomas Krych/Anadolu Britain’s top four energy quangos have seen costs balloon and staff numbers surge by up to 380pc amid Ed Miliband’s net zero push, new figures reveal.
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Energy bills to rise by £75 to cover debts of struggling households

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Verified
Household energy bills will rise by at least £75 a year to cover unpaid debts from customers who dodge paying their suppliers, EDF has warned. The electricity giant, which supplies five million customers, said household debt was “out of control” and would hit £7bn next year amid the cost of living crisis and an “emerging culture of non-payment”. Ofgem, the energy regulator, currently allows suppliers to add extra to bills of paying customers to offset some of the debts run up by freeloaders.
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The foreign exploitation of Miliband’s net zero drive

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Verified
“We are being colonised,” says Rebecca Mayhew as she contemplates the future of her idyllic Norfolk countryside. Under a proposal backed by Australian investment giant Macquarie, thousands of solar panels are to be installed near her farm in Woodton. Yet beyond the threat to the local landscape, Mayhew is daunted by the prospect that some of her land could be seized to complete the project.
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Reeves launches fresh tax raid on oil and gas giants

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By Szu Ping Chan Verified, Jonathan Leake Verified
| MSN UK Verified
Szu Ping Chan, Jonathan Leake Rachel Reeves has launched a fresh tax raid on energy giants, including BP and Shell, to fund £1.8bn of cost of living support. Ms Reeves has scrapped a tax rule allowing oil and gas companies to offset profits made in Britain against losses made by foreign subsidiaries.
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Reeves prepares fresh tax raid on oil and gas giants

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By Szu Ping Chan Verified, Jonathan Leake Verified
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Labour prepares £1bn stealth tax on family holidays

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By Jonathan Leake Verified, Christopher Jasper Verified, Szu Ping Chan Verified
| MSN UK Verified
Christopher Jasper, Szu Ping Chan, Jonathan Leake Rachel Reeves is planning a £1bn tax grab on family holidays even as she unveils summer cost of living support for families. HMRC officials are drawing up plans to impose VAT of 20pc on top of the fees that airports charge airlines to use their runways and terminals. These fees are typically passed on to customers in full, meaning the move would heap more costs on holidaymakers and businesses.
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Reeves ramps up pylons rollout by curbing 'spurious' legal challenges

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| MSN UK Verified
Jonathan Leake Under the plans, Parliament will be able to approve the most important clean energy projects which are deemed of “critical national importance”. This designation will restrict protesters from using legal processes to halt projects. Smaller energy projects will also bypass local authorities, while Ms Reeves is seeking a time limit on legal challenges for other nationally significant projects, such as for water or transport.
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Reeves ramps up pylons rollout by curbing ‘spurious’ legal challenges

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Verified
Community groups claim electricity pylons are devaluing properties and damaging landscapes - Gareth Fuller/PA Rachel Reeves will clear the way for a faster pylon rollout across Britain, as the Treasury pledged to end “spurious” legal challenges against new projects. The Chancellor is preparing a package of planning reforms to prevent rural communities and environmental groups from blocking pylon lines, wind and solar plants and new nuclear power stations.
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Reeves ramps up pylons rollout by curbing 'spurious' legal challenges

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Reopen North Sea to boost Britain, Shell urges Labour

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Reopen North Sea to boost Britain, Shell urges Labour

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Verified
Wael Sawan, said Shell and Equinor’s joint venture, Adura, ‘has the opportunity to bring gas that is home-grown to the UK’ - Colin Whyman/Shell The boss of Shell has urged Labour to ramp up drilling in the North Sea, claiming it would deliver a much-needed boost to Britain’s struggling economy. Wael Sawan called for Ed Miliband to approve two key North Sea oil and gas fields, arguing such schemes would “create jobs that create taxes to pay for the many things that [a country] requires”.
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How batteries can help Britain beat a £300 surge in energy bills

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Finance Verified
Battery powered Britain illustration It is Britain’s biggest ever energy investment: Ed Miliband’s £100bn expansion of our electricity grids has been sold to the public as vital to its future – a chance to both modernise and decarbonise its power networks. “We need to move fast and build things to deliver the once-in-a-generation upgrade of our energy infrastructure,” Miliband said in his Clean Power 2030 manifesto, laid out in 2024.
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Wasted wind threatens to cost Britain £12bn, warns National Grid

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| MSN UK Verified
Jonathan Leake Wasted wind will add up to £12bn to energy bills unless National Grid is allowed to build hundreds of miles of new pylon lines, its new chief executive has warned. Ms Yujnovich said the spiralling costs justified National Grid's plan to build hundreds of miles of new electricity transmission lines and pay for it by more than doubling the charges it adds to power bills.
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Wasted wind threatens to cost Britain £12bn, warns National Grid

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
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Wasted wind threatens to cost Britain £12bn, warns National Grid

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Finance Verified
Wasted wind will add up to £12bn to energy bills unless National Grid is allowed to build hundreds of miles of new pylon lines, its new chief executive has warned. Zoë Yujnovich said the cost of switching off turbines and solar panels when the grid cannot handle their power could triple within the next five years. Such payments are already adding £1.5bn a year to power bills.
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Wasted wind threatens to cost Britain £12bn, warns National Grid

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Aol Verified
Wasted wind will add up to £12bn to energy bills unless National Grid is allowed to build hundreds of miles of new pylon lines, its new chief executive has warned. Zoë Yujnovich said the cost of switching off turbines and solar panels when the grid cannot handle their power could triple within the next five years. Such payments are already adding £1.5bn a year to power bills.
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Miliband vows permanent shutdown of the North Sea

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Miliband vows permanent shutdown of the North Sea

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Miliband vows permanent shutdown of the North Sea

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Yahoo Verified
Ed Miliband is expected to challenge for the Labour leadership - Anadolu Labour is to ban new oil and gas fields in Britain, making it far harder for any future government to reopen the North Sea. A legal prohibition on new drilling will be included in the energy independence bill, part of the raft of new legislation set out by the King in his speech opening Parliament on Wednesday.
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Microsoft Cares About Your Privacy

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| MSN UK Verified
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire Ineos boss, is bidding for his Grenadier 4x4 off-roader to replace Land Rover as the British Army's vehicle of choice. He will be battling against Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), which is also bidding for the contract with a military version of its new Defender, a modernisation of the old Land Rover. The Ineos Grenadier was conceived by Sir Jim, who claims to have sketched his design on a £5 note during an evening at The Grenadier pub in Belgravia, central London.
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Jim Ratcliffe bids to replace Army Land Rovers with Ineos Grenadiers

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| Aol Verified
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has said the design of the Land Rover (left) inspired his Ineos Grenadier (right) Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire Ineos boss, is bidding for his Grenadier 4x4 off-roader to replace Land Rover as the British Army’s vehicle of choice. The chemicals tycoon and Manchester United co-owner has entered the race to secure a lucrative contract from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to replace the Army’s ageing fleet of 5,000 Land Rovers.
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Microsoft Cares About Your Privacy

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| MSN UK Verified
But Babcock International, which holds the contract to make the warships, has admitted it built the first two in the wrong sequence, forcing it to spend months making £140m of changes. In a trading update on Wednesday, Babcock said: “During the outfitting stage we have experienced higher-than-expected levels of rework as a result of design changes and the long-term impacts of out-of-sequence build activity earlier in the programme.
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Microsoft Cares About Your Privacy Navy's new frigates hit by setback after being built in wrong order

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By Jonathan Leake Verified
| MSN Verified
Work on a fleet of new Royal Navy warships has suffered a setback after two of them were assembled incorrectly. The Royal Navy has positioned its five Type 31 frigates as the workhorses of its future fleet, equipped with helicopters, missiles, armed interceptor boats and drones to tackle anything from piracy and people smuggling to armed conflict.
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