Ed Miliband has branded Tesla chief Elon Musk “dangerous”, stating the UK will disregard Donald Trump’s energy policy attacks.
The Energy Secretary claimed Mr Musk incited violence and called for government overthrow.
He also accused Reform UK of importing a “US-style culture war” on climate change.
Tesla is seeking a UK energy supply licence, overseen by Ofgem.
Mr Miliband said it was “very tempting” to comment on the application “but we’ve got to go through the proper process”.
But on Mr Musk himself, the Cabinet minister was clear he posed a danger.
The billionaire owner of Tesla and the X social media network called for an urgent change in government in the UK and suggested “violence is coming” as he addressed the Unite the Kingdom rally earlier this month.
At a Labour conference fringe event, Mr Miliband said: “Look, he called for the overthrow of our government. He incited violence on our streets. His platform, X, promotes disinformation.
“He is a dangerous person, definitely.”
He said most Britons “really don’t like Elon Musk, they don’t like people coming and saying ‘we should overthrow the government’ and whatever other crap he says”.
After Mr Trump used his United Nations address to attack wind and solar energy and back greater extraction of North Sea oil, Mr Miliband said countries around the world were pushing ahead with emission-reduction plans despite pressure from the White House.
“We were elected by the British people with a mandate from the British people and we’re going to carry on with our mandate, whatever Trump says,” Mr Miliband said.
“The truth is, most countries are getting on with this.”
The Energy Secretary also said Labour had to take on Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and its opposition to renewable energy projects.
He said: “We have to offer people a diagnosis of what has gone wrong in Britain and how we are going to put it right now.
“We know what Reform’s diagnosis is, which is they think it’s all the fault of immigration, net zero, diversity, God knows what, a lot of it imported from the US.”
Insisting Reform was “absolutely beatable”, Mr Miliband said Labour had to be prepared to take them on.
“What’s the f****** point of politics? The point of politics is to go out and argue for things,” he said.
Mr Miliband said climate change scepticism was a “dead end” for the Tories and it would also hamper Reform’s ability to win over Labour voters.
The Doncaster North MP said no-one in his seat wanted to “reopen the coal mines”.
He said: “Part of what I hate about Reform is they want to pretend that people in my constituency in Doncaster don’t care about their kids and grandkids and the country they inherit. Of course, they f****** do, right?”
With Reform ahead in the polls, Mr Miliband said: “The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been for this party and for the country, because of who the threat is.”
He added: “We’ve got to beat these people because of who they are, who they represent, the bigger global network that they represent.”
Mr Miliband held on to his job during Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Cabinet reshuffle and reportedly refused to be moved to another brief.
Asked about those reports, he said: “The way I put it is that Keir is extremely happy that I am carrying on doing this job.”
