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GB News star skewers MP with three words as energy row explodes
Reach Daily Express | March 30, 2026 7:41 PM CST

GB News descended into chaos as presenter Stephen Dixon grilled Tory MP Claire Coutinho in a furious clash. On Monday (March 30), the 52-year-old broadcaster returned to the helm alongside his co-host Dawn Neesom as they discussed the biggest stories hitting the headlines. It didn't take long for things to turn political as they welcomed the Shadow Energy Secretary onto the show to discuss the growing fuel crisis as conflict wars on in Iran.

She began: "You can take out wasteful spending. We've set out a plan of £200 for your average household, which also cuts electricity costs for businesses by 20%. We're the only party that has a plan for businesses, and we would fund it by cutting wasteful spending on heat pump subsidies, for example, and GB energy - something which Ed Miliband said would have a mindblowing reduction on bills.

"It hasn't done a thing for households! So we need to make sure, before we go back to the taxpayer who's already hard-pressed at the moment, that we are taking out costs in this system where we can, before we come back to them for another bailout for people on welfare, which is what the Labour party are planning to do."

It was at this point that Stephen asked: "Are you saying then that you can remove all these levies and still balance the budget? Is it costing to go to that extent?" She insisted: "Ours is fully costed. At the moment, we're taking out heat pump subsidies. We're paying a tiny amount of people enormous subsidies to get a heat pump when actually the biggest barriers are that electricity is too expensive.

"So we would rather take out those subsidies and make electricity much cheaper in this country, and we think that's better for living standards, better for the economy, and better for people who want to use electricity, which is essentially what the government's trying to do with those subsidies.

"So we take out wasteful spending, we wouldn't cost the taxpayer a penny, and we would cut household bills by £200 for the next three years." The broadcaster was quick to ruffle a few feathers as he brought up the fact that many of the energy isseus we are facing today are due to the decisions made by the Tories during their 14 years in office.

He argued: "I hate to sound like the Labour Party, but when you were in the coalition with the Lib Dems, you didn't go ahead with building a new nuclear power plant which would have been up and running by now and would have improved our energy security and the cost to us all.

"It is the Conservative Government that stopped the new licences for North Sea drilling, so you do hold some responsibility for this position we're in now." The Shadow Energy Secretary quickly countered with: "We didn't stop new licences. I was legislating to protect new licences, which have now stalled and sat on Ed Miliband's desk.

"We have always said we should maximise the North Sea. In terms of nuclear, when we started building nuclear, there was one nuclear welder in this country. We have now turned that around with skills, expertise, and a supply chain. I signed off a third large power plant in my time in office and Ed Miliband has cancelled that so we have no pipeline for large scale nuclear in this country outside of the ones we started.

"I definitely don't think we got everything right in office, I've been very candid about that, I changed out net zero position as has Kemi Badenoch, our leader, and I think we need to be much more realistic about the energy system. But we did a lot of things which the Labour Party are now getting wrong."

After watching the explosive scenes play out on screen, viewers flocked to X - formerly known as Twitter - to share their thoughts online. One user penned: "It is true to an extent. Although this Labour mob are absolutely useless, let's not forget how the Tories went weak on law & order, taxation, education, migration, the economy and more in their last five or so years in power. No wonder they're in doldrums now!"

Another agreed: "Please can this argument be won by empirical fact, so for example next time a green MP or Ed himself says there's not enough fossil fuel in our sea & no benefit to consumers, they can be held in contempt by the speaker for lying to the HSE because it cannot continue at present."

A third echoed: "Let's be honest, neither Labour nor Conservatives are fit to govern this country", as a fourth chimed in with: "As long as they keep forcing green energy on us, we are in danger of blackouts. We need energy independence. We HAVE the resources!"


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