After the cabinet reshuffle earlier this month, a rumour began to circulate that Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, had been asked to give up his clean power brief and move to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Miliband refused. The former Labour leader held the same brief the last time the party was in government and has long been a prominent proponent of net zero and climate measures, which since the end of the net zero consensus are a frequent target of politicians on the right. In his 2025 conference speech, given in the last possible spot for a ministerial speech, the former Labour leader made clear that he – and net zero – are here to stay.
Reform loomed over Labour conference. It was no different in Miliband’s speech. He described Reform as an “investment-crushing, job-destroying, bill-raising, poverty-driving, science-denying, Putin-appeasing, young people-betraying bunch of ideological extremists.” He made clear that Reform’s attacks on net zero are not only perilous for the climate, but anti-British. He characterised the race to net zero as the “biggest political battle” of our time. “Reform would wreck everything we are doing,” Miliband said. “They’ve said they would “wage war” on clean energy.”
Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice has criticised the government’s climate measures, attacking what he describes as “net stupid zero”. Tice argues that clean power is too costly, too difficult and too disruptive a programme to put the British people through. Nigel Farage has often said a Reform government would allow new licences for oil and gas drilling in the North Sea in order to protect jobs in the industry. This taps into a concern and criticism often put forward by trade unions representing workers in the region – such as Unite or GMB – who have shown reluctance around the net zero agenda.
But Miliband’s conference activities have signalled a shift in this tricky relationship. The night before his speech, Miliband spoke at the Climate Jobs UK alliance, a new initiative launched by the unions GMB and Prospect. GMB’s general secretary, Gary Smith, has been a fierce critic of net zero. He told the New Statesman in July that, “For too long, we were exporting jobs and importing virtue, so we closed down British industry. That was great for emissions, not great for communities.” But on Tuesday night Smith seemed to have mellowed. He told the reception “we know that working class communities are impacted first by the climate crisis”. In a somewhat inexplicable move, Miliband then gave Smith an avocado as – a source close to the Energy Secretary put it – “a sign of their growing bond”.
“For too long, trade unions have been locked out of new energy industries because they came of age when Tory dogma said unions were a dirty word,” Miliband said. “Not on my watch.” After announcing a new “fair work charter” for workers in the offshore wind industry, the Energy Secretary also pointed out that under current rules, if you work offshore in renewables more than 12 miles at sea, you are not covered by employment protection. “You are literally in a no man’s land,” Miliband said. In a move that will likely be looked upon favourably by the unions, Miliband announced that Labour plan to change this by changing employment laws so that “offshore, onshore, land or sea: you will be guaranteed fair pay and decent rights at work”.
This has clearly been a good conference for Miliband, despite his speech being relegated to Wednesday morning’s graveyard shift. Doing the rounds of the conference fringe, he was very liberal in his use of the f-word (he told the Labour Climate and Environment Forum reception on Monday night that “pessimism never won a single fucking victory”). And in the opening lines of his speech, he was keen to make clear that as a former Labour leader, he understands the “pressure” Keir Starmer was under in giving his “barnstorming” conference speech. As speculation mounts over the future direction and leadership of the party, Miliband clearly hoped to make one thing plain: his Labour Party career is far from finished.
[Further reading: The delusional joy of Labour conference]
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