Ed Balls has predicted Sir Keir Starmer will ditch his flagship plan to spend £28 billion a year on green investment.
The former shadow chancellor said Labour needed a “big U-turn” in order to take the sting out of Tory claims that Sir Keir would be irresponsible with the public finances.
The intervention comes after the pledge has already been watered down amid growing speculation it could be further downgraded.
Mr Balls told his Political Currency podcast: “So I would say there is going to be a U-turn and they won’t resile from a green plan, they won’t resile from the idea that that’s a way to growth and jobs, they won’t resile from the idea that you can spend now to strengthen the economy in the long term.
“But I think they’ll have to come off this £28 billion number. They’ll have to say the £28 billion number has gone, that it’s ditched or else they are going to be open to this attack.”
He added: “You need something which looks like a U-turn. And I think that that’s what they’re going to end up doing. They’ve tried partial U-turns. It hasn’t worked. They need a big U-turn.”
Labour originally promised to spend £28 billion a year on green investment from the first year of being in power. But that was reduced to a commitment to hit the annual number in the second half of a first term.
Sir Keir then appeared to downplay the significance of the pledge earlier this month as he that “the mission isn’t writing a cheque, the mission is green power by 2030”.