27-05-2025
Could a new green Labour faction cause trouble for Ed Miliband?
Image:Ed Miliband likely breathed a sigh of relief on Friday morning after Ofgem announced a 7 per cent reduction in the energy price cap. Average bills will go down by £129 a year for a typical household (or around £11 a month) from 1 July. This is not quite the £300 reduction Miliband and his team promised in the run-up to the election, but it's certainly a start. Coupled with the government's feeble U-turn on the cut to the Winter Fuel Payment, it will have taken some of the electoral heat off the Energy Secretary's performance. But the real challenge on the horizon may come from within his own party.
Despite vicious attacks from both Reform and the Conservatives – in this new phase of the climate culture wars – the government remains committed to the Clean Power 2030 and Net Zero agenda. Keir Starmer used his speech to the International Energy Summit, held in London at the end of April, to double-down on his commitment to the cause, telling delegates that 'homegrown clean energy is the only way to take back control of our energy system'. Still, as I have written previously, recent aspects of the government's growth agenda – such as support for the expansion of Heathrow, Luton and Gatwick airports – do not sit easily with the green transition.
They have also not been looked on favourably by the some of the more climate-focussed members of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), some of whom question how Miliband can keep on this path. But, as one MP told me, pointing this out to the Energy Secretary and his team is often met with protestations that it's better to have someone in government pushing the agenda, even as the Prime Minister pursues polluting policies like Heathrow's third runway. Miliband's riposte is fair enough; but it is unlikely to stop pro-net zero MPs from organising if they unhappy with the government's direction.
Until the start of this year, most of these MPs congregated around the Climate and Nature Bill, a private members bill which aimed to place a requirement on the Environment Secretary to implement a strategy, with annual targets, to reduce CO2 emissions and reverse the degradation of nature. While it was sponsored by the Lib Dem MP, Roz Savage, the bill had also garnered the support of several Labour MPs such as Clive Lewis, Alex Sobel, Olivia Blake and Simon Opher.
On 24 January, the government won a motion by 120 votes to seven to end the debate of the bill. It will not return to the House of Commons until July and is unlikely to pass into law. Before pushing to drop the law, the government made a deal with supportive Labour backbenchers, saying it would make a statement on progress towards climate and nature targets within six months, hold a consultation with the bill's supporters over upcoming environmental legislation, and host more meetings between Miliband and climate-conscious MPs. But as one MP involved with the bill told me, considering current concern over recent government policies (Heathrow, Rosebank) these offers felt a bit flat.
The cancellation of the bill has left a vacuum. But those MPs' concerns have not dissipated (and are unlikely to). The question is where it goes next. There are several upcoming flash points; the Report Stage of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill (which begins after 9 June) is perhaps the most significant. Chris Hinchcliffe, a member of the 2024 intake, and MP for East Hertfordshire, has submitted a raft of amendments to the bill, intended to strengthen its protections for nature. Speaking in the Commons last week, Hinchcliffe said the bill as it stands would 'push the public towards Reform'. His amendment already has the backing of Lewis and other MPs sympathetic to the climate and nature cause.
Another flashpoint will arrive when a decision is finally made over the future of the oil fields at Jackdaw and Rosebank. Though the High Court ruled that permissions for both fields had been granted unlawfully, drilling could still go ahead (this would be consistent with Labour's policy of no new oil and gas licences as permission for these fields was granted under the Tories).
Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe
This decision is sitting in Miliband's in-tray. The Energy Secretary previously said allowing both fields to go ahead would be 'an act of climate vandalism', though, as mentioned previously, Starmer and Reeves are both said to be supportive. One Labour insider told me, if he finds himself stuck in a bind, Miliband could recuse himself from making the decision, leaving Energy Minister Sarah Jones to give the announcement. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but if permission is granted, the environment-focussed members of the PLP will certainly not be happy – a clearer climate faction could subsequently emerge.
Conversations are certainly being had in Parliament by unhappy members of the PLP. Depending on the outcome of upcoming flashpoints, a new climate movement within the ranks of the Labour party may be about to take shape.
Related
