Struggling households should get the cheapest energy, not the greenest energy, Shipley MP Philip Davies has insisted as he criticised plans for a windfarm at Denholme.

“Wind farms are a blot on the landscape and this is one of the reasons I am very opposed to one being built in Denholme,” said Mr Davies.

“They are expensive and ineffective forms of energy.”

He added that many green policies were biased in favour of the better off.

“We have a redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich. Poor people are paying extra on their electricity bills to subsidise wealthy landowners to have windfarms on their land. This is grotesque.

“People are in fuel poverty and we need to sort this not make poorer people poorer.

“I want the cheapest type of energy for people, not the greenest.”

Mr Davies said the Government should not subsidise windfarms and that there should restrictions on the height, number and location of turbines.

But Mr Davies’s approach drew criticism from Bradford Councillor Hawarun Hussain (Green, Shipley). She said: “It’s just typical of him to say that – blinkered and short-sighted. He is showing a lack of understanding of the situation. The more sources of alternative energy production there are, obviously the cheaper it will be.”