Ed Miliband furiously tore into the “state of the Conservative Party” after being accused of helping to approve a solar farm linked to a Labour donor.

The energy secretary accused shadow minister Joy Morrissey of “scraping the barrel” as the pair clashed in the House of Commons.

She had told MPs that Miliband had personally approved the solar farm, which is in Lincolnshire and backed by millionaire environmentalist and Labour supporter Dale Vince.

Morrissey said: “The public have a right to be certain that this decision was carried out properly. So will the secretary of state refer his conduct of this application to the independent adviser on ministerial standards – yes or no?”

But Miliband hit back: “I’m glad the honourable lady asked about this because I took no part in this decision and recused myself from it.

“And here we go. You see, they’ve got nothing to say. Desperate scraping of the barrel and let the whole House hear it – they opposed a solar plant that would put up solar panels around the country and give clean power to the British people.

“The state of the Conservative Party is something to behold.”

Miliband has earlier torn into the Tory frontbench after Morrissey asked himwhat local communities need to do to “convince him” not to build solar farms on agricultural land.

He replied: “It is quite extraordinary, Madam Deputy Speaker, because we are absolutely exposed as a country and the party opposite opposes clean power.

“A blanket opposition to clean power. So let every person throughout the country know that when energy bills remain high, they are opposing the things that would bring them down. It is quite extraordinary.

“This is a Conservative Party that lost the general election, the worst defeat in 200 years, and if anything since the last election, they’ve got worse and they’ve learnt nothing.”

The Tory Party won just 121 seats on July 4 as Keir Starmer swept to a landslide victory.