Labour donor says parts of British heritage are ‘history on life support’ and should die

A top Labour donor has labelled some British heritage “just history on life support” which should be allowed to die after the party controversially gave the green light for the demolition of an historic building.

Dale Vince, the green energy tycoon, said he backed Angela Rayner’s recent move to approve the demolition of Marks & Spencer’s art deco shop on Oxford Street.

Just Stop Oil supporter Vince dismissed critics of the beloved building’s destruction, saying: “Sometimes ‘heritage’ is just history on life support and we should let it go.”

The M&S demolition approval comes after years of delays and controversy, having initially been blocked by ex-Housing Secretary Michael Gove.

At the time, Gove had raised concerns over carbon emissions and potential harm to the area’s heritage.

But Rayner’s recent decision comes as part of Labour’s broader drive to “unleash the biggest building boom in half a century” – and the party has also recently approved a £670million-valued data centre on green belt land.

Campaigners had argued that she should have pushed M&S to refit the central London store rather than knock it down, given the higher carbon footprint from a rebuild.

But Vince isn’t convinced.

“From what I understand the building will be almost double the size but energy consumption will fall by 75 per cent – that’s incredible and shows how outdated the old building was,” he said.

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Though Vince and Labour are on the same page about projects being “held to ransom” by “Nimbys” and environmentalists, both he and the party have taken serious flak from heritage campaigners and fellow environmentalists alike.

Save Britain’s Heritage argued there are “gaping holes” in current policy, calling for urgent reforms to planning regulations.

The group says policy needs to catch up with climate science and prioritise refitting historic buildings.

Henrietta Billings, director of the group, criticised the M&S decision as “wilfully myopic.”

“The Government has chosen the easy option – business as usual – when it had a real chance to show leadership and ambition on this urgent issue,” she said.

“Our old, wasteful knock-it-down-and-start-again model is broken,” Billings added.

But M&S welcomed Rayner’s decision, viewing it as evidence that Labour is “serious about getting Britain building and growing.”