Nigel Farage has accused ministers of "defrauding" taxpayers out of billions of pounds by funding green energy projects.

Reform UK's leader made two significant policy declarations on Sunday, proposing to take half of Britain's water companies into state control whilst simultaneously condemning Government expenditure on renewable energy as fraudulent.

Farage outlined plans for partial nationalisation of water utilities but could not provide cost estimates.

The Reform leader also launched a scathing attack on green energy subsidies, claiming British taxpayers were being "defrauded" through billions in spending that achieved "literally zero effect" on worldwide carbon dioxide levels.

When asked by the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg whether he believed in climate change, Farage responded that it was "absolutely mindless for a country that produces less than one per cent of global CO2 to beggar itself".

He continued: "Do I believe there's climate change? Yes. Does man have an influence? Its impossible to think we haven't got some influence as to what proportion it is, I've no idea."

Kuensberg doubled down on the populist party leader but he said: "This is not my religion, this is not my religion, I know it's the religion in Westminster now in a fairly godless age.

"The real point about it is, are we going to deindustrialise Britain?

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"There are 2.5 million manufacturing jobs left in Britain that are under threat and could be gone in the next decade unless we change direction, and that particularly relates to energy policy."

Kuenssberg then told Farage that humans have had a significant impact on the planet's climate.

He responded: "Well, say it does. Is that sufficient reason to defraud British taxpayers of billions of pounds every year, which is what we're doing, in subsidising wind energy and solar energy for literally zero effect on global CO2 emissions?

"The same goes for closing our steel plants and moving the production to India.

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Farage continued by accusing ministers of 'defrauding British taxpayers of billions of pounds every year' for green energy projects

"We've got ourselves stuck in this mindset. We believe that man has an influence on changing the climate, I didn't deny that, I think man does.

"But whether that's a reason to transfer manufacturing to other parts of the world, to have the most expensive energy prices for industry in the world and to make the poor poorer in society for almost no benefit whatsoever. I doubt it."

Elsewhere, Farage's water industry proposal would see the Government acquire a 50 per cent stake in water companies, with the remaining half held by British pension funds, according to Reform's 2024 manifesto commitments.

When questioned about financial implications, Farage stated the cost would be "a lot less" than the £50billion figure suggested by Government estimates, though he repeatedly declined to specify an amount.

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"That depends what deal you do with the private sector investors," Farage said, adding: "We don't know what negotiations we're going to have, but it doesn't need to be a big sum of money if you incentivise private capital to come in and do the job properly."

He dismissed official calculations from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and water regulator Ofwat, declaring them "part of the problem".

Environment Secretary Steve Reed firmly rejected nationalisation proposals, warning that full state ownership would require "upwards of £100billion".

He said: "We'd have to take away from the National Health Service and schools to give to the owners of the companies that are polluted.'

"If we try to unpick the current model of ownership, it would take years, and during that period, pollution would get worse because the companies wouldn't invest knowing that they were going to be nationalised.

"So instead of me sitting here telling the public that we're going to halve sewage pollution over the next five years, I would instead be sitting here saying we're going to play around with ownership and pollution will get far worse."