EXPOSED: Keir Starmer set to impose new ‘stealth’ net zero tax as part of EU reset amid cost-of-living crisis
Keir Starmer is set to impose a new net zero tax as part of his ongoing EU reset, an exclusive new report has found.
The revelation, from think tank Facts4EU in collaboration with Stand for our Sovereignty and CIBUK.Org, comes a day after he announced a package of measures aimed at protecting households from a cost-of-living crisis as the Iran war roils energy markets.
Baroness Kate Hoey brands the new carbon tax, which will hit British ships and ferries, as “discriminatory”, while Conservative MP John Redwood claims it’s a “warm-up to imposing deeply damaging wider EU carbon taxes and carbon tariffs”.
The winners and losers of the levy
The tax affects the United Kingdom locally – ferries bringing people and goods to and from places like Northern Ireland and the Isle of Wight will have no choice but to increase prices, the report warns.
In many cases, these are costs people cannot avoid, as their journeys from one part of the United Kingdom to another are essential.
They are being “penalised” purely because these journeys involve crossing a stretch of water, the report’s authors warn.
Scotland is exempted – no ferries to the Scottish islands will be required to pay this tax at all.
The exemption comes just weeks ahead of the elections for the new Holyrood Parliament, where he has 20 Labour MSPs who are all at risk of losing their seats.
The timing is not lost on Baroness Hoey, who told the People’s Channel: “On the 7th of May, the people of Scotland will go to the polls to elect their new Parliament.
“After some resignations and defections, there are still 20 Labour MSPs who have to face their electorates. They must all be worried about the unpopularity of this Government.
“The same goes for the Labour MPs from Scotland at Westminster. I think people will draw their own conclusions when they see that Sir Keir has given Scotland a complete exemption, apparently without any great lobbying needed. Then compare that to Northern Ireland. There are 37 Labour MPs in Scotland and none in Northern Ireland.
“In fact, the Labour Party does not even let people vote for MPs in Northern Ireland. It takes their money and gives them membership, but it will not put up candidates. That is another discrimination by that party.”
Keir Starmer is set to impose a new net zero tax as part of his ongoing EU reset
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Given that Scottish ferries are not paying the tax at all, the report contradicts one minister’s claim that Northern Ireland isn’t “in any way disadvantaged”.
Critically, the Province has no land border with the rest of the United Kingdom and relies on shipping to transport passengers and essential goods to and from GB in order to survive.
The tax for Northern Ireland has been reduced by 50 per cent, but this is not enough to mitigate its effects on one part of the United Kingdom, the report warns.
Not only that, but there is a very suspicious reason behind this, the report claims.
Two weeks ago, meetings were being held by the Northern Ireland Office with various interested parties.
The report’s authors learned that while the Government’s Scotland Office had no trouble persuading Starmer to exempt Scotland, the opposite was going on in Northern Ireland.
The Government’s N. I. Office was lobbying hard for the N.I. Assembly’s Committee – set up to consider this tax – to vote in favour of it.
A delay was created by the N.I. Office promising to publish an impact assessment.
In fact, no such impact assessment exists, and none has been produced.
The delay, it is said, was to give the officials time to lobby hard, as it was clear that the N.I. Stormont Committee was going to vote against.
Even the Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, was texting party leaders over the weekend, saying that the entire EU reset would be threatened if the Assembly blocked this statutory instrument.
It was vital that the N.I. Assembly voted in favour, as the statutory instrument required all four nations to be in agreement.
“What happened was, frankly, disgraceful. Last-minute pressure was placed on parties by the UK Government,” committee member Michelle McIlveen said in a statement to the Assembly.
“A new dimension associated with CBAM [Carbon Border Mechanism Adjustment] and impact on EU negotiations was introduced. No facts, detail or proper briefing, just smoke and mirrors.
“That is not the way that we should do our politics, and interference at such a late stage is highly suspicious.”
A heated debate in the House of Commons last month revealed how divisive the carbon tax is proving to be in the Province.
“The 50 per cent reduction that applies to Northern Ireland is there to create parity between vessels that operate between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and those that operate between Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.”
– – Chris McDonald MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, 03 Feb 2026
“The Minister is telling the Committee that parity with the Republic of Ireland is more important to him than parity with the rest of the United Kingdom. Really?”
– Jim Allister KC MP, Leader of the TUV, 03 Feb 2026
“That is not what I am saying at all. I am saying that it was important to us that Northern Ireland was not in any way disadvantaged, which is why the 50 per cent reduction was offered.”
Baroness Hoey told the People’s Channel: “It is clear that Northern Ireland does not have a Northern Ireland Office that works for the people of Northern Ireland the way in which the Scotland Office does for the Scottish people.”
Britain’s C02 emissions are negligible, accounting for only 0.9 per cent of the global output
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Facts4EU
Green levy by stealth?
As the tax is being imposed via a statutory instrument, it has the effect of avoiding a full Parliamentary debate.
It has all been discussed in committees, which seldom get reported on, and in a debate in the House of Lords, which again gets little publicity.
This has all the hallmarks of a tax by “stealth”, Redwood tells the People’s Channel, adding: “How can the Prime Minister be so determined to subject us again to EU laws and taxes that he chooses now to burden us with higher energy taxes and costs?
“Just when the public is alarmed by the leap in oil and gas prices, the Government stealthily imposes a new tax on shipping using fossil fuels as a warm-up to imposing deeply damaging wider EU carbon taxes and carbon tariffs.
“The Chancellor tells us that aligning more closely with the EU will bring us growth. This nasty shipping tax is a sample of the reset measures that will close more businesses, lose us more jobs and put up prices.”
Furthermore, as the chart above shows, Britain’s C02 emissions are negligible, accounting for only 0.9 per cent of the global output.
This raises serious questions over the Government’s cost-benefit analysis, the report’s authors warn, as the increased costs imposed by the carbon tax will trickle down to consumers and businesses alike.
GB News has reached out to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for comment.
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