The Energy Secretary doesn’t engage with the substance. He rises above it, or thinks he does. He dismisses criticism as a plot by the right-wing press, or fossil fuel companies hellbent on destroying the planet. A personalised campaign, smearing him with “nonsense and lies”. And it's true that some attacks stray into the personal. That’s politics. But Miliband should answer with facts. He doesn’t.

Instead, he makes grand, sweeping claims about the success of his policies, while ignoring facts on the ground. He says covering Britain with wind turbines and solar panels, while blocking new oil and gas exploration will cut bills and boost energy security, in the face of all the evidence. Today,he’s been challenged by someone who can’t be brushed off as a right-wing crank or big oil stooge, and who's just branded his net zero charge “not fit for purpose”.

No, it’s not Nigel Farage. Or Tory shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho. It’s former Labour PM Sir Tony Blair. Who knows exactly what Miliband is like. The energy secretary clearly gets his goat too. Blair believes climate change is real and must be tackled, but this isn't the way to do it.

This morning he has torn into Miliband’s approach, and not for the first time. His think tank, the Tony Blair Institute, has published a report arguing that Labour should junk Miliband’s green energy strategy and instead focus on what really matters, making energy cheaper.

The report echoes what critics have said for years, that his accelerated wind and solar push will drive up electricity prices and hollow out industry, while doing next to nothing to slow climate change. This includes spending £1.5 billion a year paying wind farms to switch off when supply out strips demand. Its conclusion is blunt: “In a country responsible for less than 1% of global emissions, that is not climate leadership – it is climate theatre.”

Cheap energy is now a measure of hard power, pointing to the US and China’s focus on production.

Crucially, it calls on Miliband to scrap the 38% windfall tax on oil and gas and lift the ban on new North Sea licences. By doing so, the UK could produce 7.5billion barrels and add £165billion to the economy. Even ambitious net zero scenarios require oil and gas beyond 2050. Instead of producing it, we'll import it at huge cost, and with higher emissions.

The report says unless Miliband has a resut, our bills will rise. But Miliband won’t reset. He ploughs on, brushing off costs and risks.

That’s why he draws such fire. His refusal to engage with economic reality drives people mad. Watch him speak, punching the air and rolling his eyes, and critics conclude he’s deluded. That's not my saying that. The exact word has been used by a leading UK energy expert about his policies.

Professor Dieter Helm of Oxford says aspects of Miliband’s 2030 electricity decarbonisation target are based on a "delusion", arguing the timetable ignores practical constraints and the full costs of renewables.

Professor Helm disputes claims that net zero will cut bills, warning it could lock in higher costs instead. Miliband doesn't care. He refuses to engage. He'll just rant on about the right and continue with a childish policy that could cost the nation hundreds of billions of pounds.

Today, Miliband's spokesperson responded to Blair's report by once again claiming that Miliband’s clean power mission is the only way to cut bills for good, deliver energy security and create thousands of jobs.

That's just more unproven nonsense. It'll leave us hooked on Chinese tech while threatening existing oil and gas sector jobs, and creating hardly any green ones.

And he wonders why people say his plans are deluded and not fit for purpose. That isn’t a fringe view or right-wing conspiracy. It’s common sense. Which Miliband simply doesn't have.