Labour‘s biggest union backer attacked the Net Zero drive last night, warning that it is set to become a ‘political millstone’ around the party’s neck.
Amid growing unrest over the green agenda, Unite took aim at the Government’s ‘laughable’ inaction to protect jobs.
And Keir Starmer failed to guarantee Ed Miliband would stay in post as splits within Labour became apparent.
The row over Net Zero was re-ignited by former prime minister Tony Blair who this week delivered a scathing verdict on Mr Miliband’s programme.
Sir Tony said any strategy based on phasing out fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption was ‘doomed to fail’.
He said the public would be resentful at ‘being asked to make financial sacrifices and changes in lifestyle when they know that their impact on global emissions is minimal’.
His intervention prompted anger within the Government, and No10 failed to deny that it had asked the Tony Blair Institute to issue a clarification yesterday.
Coming just before Sir Keir was set to face a tough grilling at Prime Minister’s Questions, a spokesman for the TBI insisted its report, for which Sir Tony wrote the critical foreword, backed the administration’s climate target.
Labour’s biggest union backer attacked the Net Zero drive last night, warning that it is set to become a ‘political millstone’ around the party’s neck (file photo)
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer MP, speaks during the Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite the Union, at the UK Labour Party annual conference
But, as Labour tried to turn down the heat of the argument, Unite stepped up the pressure by questioning the current path to Net Zero and saying it must ‘deliver an industrial strategy underpinned by a fully-funded workers’ transition, or Net Zero will become a political millstone around Labour’s neck’.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘Unite is not against Net Zero but it will not be achieved without serious investment in new jobs.
‘Unite has warned time after time, that all the rhetoric about a joined up industrial strategy and future jobs must be backed up with serious investment that actually delivers. What is Labour waiting for? The time to act is now.
‘If they fail to do this, then Labour cannot expect workers to support their Net Zero plan.’
Unite’s intervention comes after the GMB union described the Government’s energy policy as ‘bonkers’.
General Secretary Gary Smith said it was ‘absolute madness’ to be cutting off investment into North Sea oil and gas, and warned of a ‘growing sense of betrayal’.
Last night it was reported that new homes will have to be built with solar panels as standard under green plans being considered by ministers.
The Times said developers will be mandated to include the roof panels, adding up to £4,000 to the cost of a detached house, in an attempt to cut homeowners’ energy bills and carbon emissions.
The row over Net Zero was re-ignited by former prime minister Tony Blair who this week delivered a scathing verdict on Mr Miliband’s programme
Energy Secretary Ed Milliband leaves Downing Street, London, after a Cabinet meetin
Downing Street has said – at times when Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Foreign Secretary David Lammy were under fire – that they would keep their Cabinet positions for the whole of Labour’s five-year term in power.
Asked if Sir Keir had confidence in Energy and Climate Change Secretary Mr Miliband, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters: ‘Absolutely. He’s doing a fantastic job.’
But pressed on whether he would stay in post for the rest of this Parliament, the spokesman refused to confirm it, adding: ‘The PM absolutely backs the Energy Secretary. He does a great job in winning the global race for the jobs of the future.’
Highlighting that perhaps not all in the Cabinet side with Mr Miliband’s plans, Environment Secretary Steve Reed had earlier yesterday rejected suggestions that Sir Tony’s intervention amounted to a ‘public tantrum’.
‘He’s making a valid and important contribution to a very significant debate,’ Mr Reed told Times Radio. ‘I agree with much of what he said, but not every word of it.’
Downing Street distanced Sir Keir from Sir Tony’s intervention – in which the former PM said most political leaders ‘would like to start taking some of the hysteria out of the climate debate but are reluctant to be the first to do so’.
Asked whether the PM believed hysteria was present in the international debate on climate change, his spokesman said: ‘I don’t think so… we’re taking a very practical and pragmatic approach to this in the UK.’
Andrew Bowie, Tory energy spokesman, told the Mail last night: ‘No amount of contrived backtracking can cover for the fact that Tony Blair clearly thinks the Labour Party’s approach to Net Zero is causing hardship for the British people.’
Last night it was reported that new homes will have to be built with solar panels as standard under green plans being considered by ministers (file photo)
Tory peer Craig Mackinlay, founder of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, said Sir Tony ‘as a skilled political operator… can see that unilaterally imposed high electricity prices, de-industrialision and ever more unpopular policies which restrict choice on the altar of Net Zero will always be rejected by the electorate.’
Norway’s energy minister Terje Aasland said his country would never turn its back on North Sea oil and gas in the way Britain has done. He told The Telegraph it ‘creates a lot of value for Norwegian society. In the UK, the oil and gas industry contributed in just the same way – until now.’
But Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told LBC: ‘The transition to Net Zero can unlock really good jobs across the country.’
