Do we believe in free trade or in green subsidies?

The confusion over green protectionism reflects doubts among voters about their willingness to pay to slow down climate change, writes John Rentoul

The plan does indeed come close to matching the ambition of Biden’s IRA (Simon Dawson/10 Downing Street/Reuters)

Jeremy Hunt says that Britain will not go “toe-to-toe” with the United States, which is about to destabilise world trade with $369bn of green subsidies in Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

But in the same article the chancellor boasts that Britain has already spent more on green investment in the past two years than Biden’s IRA, “relative to the size of our respective economies”. It would seem that “we” invest in green growth; “they” engage in a “distortive global subsidy race”.

He warns against “the threat of protectionism creeping its way back into the world economy”, but seems to be boasting at the same time that we started it.