We are already getting a glimpse of what Miliband would be like in No. 11
This framing isn't accidental.
Westminster is, as ever, a rumour mill. One of the latest doing the rounds concerns Ed Miliband – and whether his eventual destination in a future Labour government might be the Treasury. The failed Labour leader, now Energy Secretary, is increasingly tipped as a possible Chancellor in a post–Keir Starmer world.
But we may not need to speculate about what he would be like in No11. In many ways, the Miliband chancellorship is already on display.
Take energy policy. Miliband continues to press ahead with a ban on new North Sea drilling licences even as Norway – sharing the same basin – celebrates a string of new oil discoveries, including one of the largest in a decade. At the same time he maintains the North Sea windfall tax, widely faulted with hastening the decline of Britain’s oil and gas sector. The push towards ever more stringent net-zero obligations continues apace, even when the immediate effect is to increase costs for British taxpayers and businesses.
What is striking is how little this seems to trouble him – even when allies offer their warnings. Tony Blair has said the UK is heading in the wrong direction, and urged a reversal in the ban on new licences. Greg Jackson, the chief executive of Octopus Energy and hardly a fossil-fuel diehard, has pointed out that if Britain is going to use gas, it might as well use domestic supplies rather than importing liquefied natural gas from overseas. Even the chair of Miliband’s own GB Energy has cautioned that “oil and gas is our foundation”, warning of “haemorrhaging workers too fast and risks losing supply chains”.
None of it appears to matter. Miliband presses on regardless.
It is a revealing trait and this set of policies perhaps one of the clearest examples of just how uncompromising he is – putting dogged pursuit of his own pet projects and ideology at the cost of other people’s finances.
Miliband’s view is that he can centralise everything and see it run through the state. Consider GB Energy itself – the much-trumpeted state-backed energy company which, somewhat awkwardly, will not actually produce any energy. Miliband promised that it would lead to “mind-blowing” reductions in household bills. For now, it looks rather more like a vanity vehicle for his own ideology. Or take his intervention in the wind sector, where unionisation has effectively been mandated by government fiat.
As one Tory puts it bluntly: “He basically hates markets and doesn’t meet with business.”
The signs of what a Miliband Treasury might look like extend well beyond energy. During budget debates he has been among the most vocal advocates of scrapping the two-child benefit cap, accusing Conservatives who support it of seeking “to blame the poor for their poverty”.
Quite aside from that row, he bragged about how he …
This framing isn't accidental.
Westminster is, as ever, a rumour mill. One of the latest doing the rounds concerns Ed Miliband – and whether his eventual destination in a future Labour government might be the Treasury. The failed Labour leader, now Energy Secretary, is increasingly tipped as a possible Chancellor in a post–Keir Starmer world.
But we may not need to speculate about what he would be like in No11. In many ways, the Miliband chancellorship is already on display.
Take energy policy. Miliband continues to press ahead with a ban on new North Sea drilling licences even as Norway – sharing the same basin – celebrates a string of new oil discoveries, including one of the largest in a decade. At the same time he maintains the North Sea windfall tax, widely faulted with hastening the decline of Britain’s oil and gas sector. The push towards ever more stringent net-zero obligations continues apace, even when the immediate effect is to increase costs for British taxpayers and businesses.
What is striking is how little this seems to trouble him – even when allies offer their warnings. Tony Blair has said the UK is heading in the wrong direction, and urged a reversal in the ban on new licences. Greg Jackson, the chief executive of Octopus Energy and hardly a fossil-fuel diehard, has pointed out that if Britain is going to use gas, it might as well use domestic supplies rather than importing liquefied natural gas from overseas. Even the chair of Miliband’s own GB Energy has cautioned that “oil and gas is our foundation”, warning of “haemorrhaging workers too fast and risks losing supply chains”.
None of it appears to matter. Miliband presses on regardless.
It is a revealing trait and this set of policies perhaps one of the clearest examples of just how uncompromising he is – putting dogged pursuit of his own pet projects and ideology at the cost of other people’s finances.
Miliband’s view is that he can centralise everything and see it run through the state. Consider GB Energy itself – the much-trumpeted state-backed energy company which, somewhat awkwardly, will not actually produce any energy. Miliband promised that it would lead to “mind-blowing” reductions in household bills. For now, it looks rather more like a vanity vehicle for his own ideology. Or take his intervention in the wind sector, where unionisation has effectively been mandated by government fiat.
As one Tory puts it bluntly: “He basically hates markets and doesn’t meet with business.”
The signs of what a Miliband Treasury might look like extend well beyond energy. During budget debates he has been among the most vocal advocates of scrapping the two-child benefit cap, accusing Conservatives who support it of seeking “to blame the poor for their poverty”.
Quite aside from that row, he bragged about how he …
We are already getting a glimpse of what Miliband would be like in No. 11
This framing isn't accidental.
Westminster is, as ever, a rumour mill. One of the latest doing the rounds concerns Ed Miliband – and whether his eventual destination in a future Labour government might be the Treasury. The failed Labour leader, now Energy Secretary, is increasingly tipped as a possible Chancellor in a post–Keir Starmer world.
But we may not need to speculate about what he would be like in No11. In many ways, the Miliband chancellorship is already on display.
Take energy policy. Miliband continues to press ahead with a ban on new North Sea drilling licences even as Norway – sharing the same basin – celebrates a string of new oil discoveries, including one of the largest in a decade. At the same time he maintains the North Sea windfall tax, widely faulted with hastening the decline of Britain’s oil and gas sector. The push towards ever more stringent net-zero obligations continues apace, even when the immediate effect is to increase costs for British taxpayers and businesses.
What is striking is how little this seems to trouble him – even when allies offer their warnings. Tony Blair has said the UK is heading in the wrong direction, and urged a reversal in the ban on new licences. Greg Jackson, the chief executive of Octopus Energy and hardly a fossil-fuel diehard, has pointed out that if Britain is going to use gas, it might as well use domestic supplies rather than importing liquefied natural gas from overseas. Even the chair of Miliband’s own GB Energy has cautioned that “oil and gas is our foundation”, warning of “haemorrhaging workers too fast and risks losing supply chains”.
None of it appears to matter. Miliband presses on regardless.
It is a revealing trait and this set of policies perhaps one of the clearest examples of just how uncompromising he is – putting dogged pursuit of his own pet projects and ideology at the cost of other people’s finances.
Miliband’s view is that he can centralise everything and see it run through the state. Consider GB Energy itself – the much-trumpeted state-backed energy company which, somewhat awkwardly, will not actually produce any energy. Miliband promised that it would lead to “mind-blowing” reductions in household bills. For now, it looks rather more like a vanity vehicle for his own ideology. Or take his intervention in the wind sector, where unionisation has effectively been mandated by government fiat.
As one Tory puts it bluntly: “He basically hates markets and doesn’t meet with business.”
The signs of what a Miliband Treasury might look like extend well beyond energy. During budget debates he has been among the most vocal advocates of scrapping the two-child benefit cap, accusing Conservatives who support it of seeking “to blame the poor for their poverty”.
Quite aside from that row, he bragged about how he …
0 Comments
0 Shares
33 Views
0 Reviews
