Labour is in a fight against “global network of rightwing billionaires” who want to undermine net zero for their “vested interests”, Ed Miliband has said.
The energy secretary said that the Conservatives and Reform UK were “importing a net zero culture war” and that accelerating the green transition would be key to winning the argument with the public.
“Genuinely, I relish this fight on clean energy and net zero,” he told the Guardian. “Because that is what politics is about.”
Miliband is to revive a pledge from opposition that Labour will deliver a “green new deal”, which will both tackle climate change and economic inequality. He is set to announce a target of creating 400,000 new jobs in clean energy, doubling jobs in the sector by 2030. It will include a number of priority jobs from engineers and researchers to welders, electricians and construction workers.
In his speech at Labour conference on Wednesday, Miliband will also promise to accelerate unionisation of the green energy sector – amid a backlash among trade unions on the drive to net zero which they have said comes at a cost of highly paid unionised jobs in oil and gas.
Miliband said that the fight against Reform meant showing how net zero would benefit ordinary working people. But he added that Labour MPs should focus on fighting for their own values and beliefs, rather than reacting to the whims of Nigel Farage.
“Reform is now part of a powerful network across the world who want to take away rights for workers, who want to reverse clean energy,” he said. “Elon Musk, he is a poster child in a bad way for this movement, and we have to take that on.
“The consensus hasn’t broken down because the British people have changed, the consensus has broken down, because the Tories and Reform have thought, ‘Let’s import the culture war from the US.’”
Miliband said Reform’s pledge to end all net zero investments were attacks on “workers in Hull, people at cable factories in Scotland, at the people doing Net Zero Teesside, and it’s a war on future generations.”
He said Labour would only beat Reform by offering its own more compelling story of why working people’s lives felt so difficult. “They want to say that the problems of the country can be put down to migration, diversity, net zero,” he said.
“The truth is the reason why people’s living standards are stuck, why growth has been so low, and public services are on their knees, is … trickle-down economics from the 80s, which left us with huge inequality and austerity in the 20s.”
The energy secretary has come in for fierce criticism from some unions, including GMB and Unite, over the risk to the jobs for workers particularly in the North Sea.
The government is set to require offshore wind developers to pay into a skills fund to support oil and gas workers, apprentices or school leavers to move into offshore wind.
On Wednesday he will pledge to create a “fair worker charter”, which will mean that companies which receive public funding will have to guarantee fair pay, flexible working and access to unionisation.
The final rules could include enhanced pay, bonuses and sick leave, flexible working and contracts, as well as new access for unions, new rights for offshore workers and workers on the boards of publicly owned bodies such as Great British Energy.
Miliband said the green industry was playing catch-up over workers’ rights. “The renewables industry came of age under the Tories when unions were a dirty word,” he said.
“I’m sending a very clear message in my speech on Wednesday, which is we’re putting an end to this. We want to support companies, we want to work with business, but trade unions are an essential partner in building this new economy.”
The energy secretary said the government was “doing everything we can to bear down on bills” but admitted that the need for investment in creaking network infrastructure and the high price of gas was making the challenge extremely difficult.
He is also facing mounting calls for a delay to the 2030 target for decarbonising the grid, with warnings from the state-owned National Energy System Operator (NESO) that the target may be too challenging. He said the target had been “unbelievably important in galvanising the industry … We wouldn’t have this clean energy jobs opportunity if it wasn’t for 2030.”
Miliband said he acknowledged that Labour MPs were feeling the heat from the constituents – many also from parties on the left such as the Greens as well as Reform. But he said he had learned from his own experience as Labour leader that the argument had to be made for core values and beliefs, rather than as a kneejerk response.
“I lost the election in 2015. I decided to stay in politics. The reason I decided to stay is because I thought there were big things to fight for,” he said. “There’s no bigger thing to fight for than changing our economy. After 30 years of neoliberalism and changing our economy and the Green New Deal climate is an essential part of that.
“I don’t care so much what the Greens say or what Reform says. I care about what we say. We should use the power of government to do what we believe. And then you let the chips fall where they may.”
