Miliband’s Net Zero militancy is a disaster in the making

His ban on North Sea oil and gas drilling has exposed his contempt for British industry and workers

Having barely been in power for a week, the Labour government is already pursuing a radical Net Zero agenda. Yesterday, it was reported in the Telegraph that Ed Miliband, the new energy secretary, would be immediately banning all new offshore drilling licences in the North Sea. The move would deny the UK 600million barrels of oil and a fair amount of gas besides.

Yet it now seems that Miliband might be taking a leaf out of notorious flip-flopper Keir Starmer’s book. One spokesman told the Telegraph that some outstanding applications would still be considered. But another then said that no new licences would be approved.

To make matters more confusing, by Thursday afternoon an official in Miliband’s department was denouncing the entire Telegraph article as a ‘complete fabrication’ and claiming that no decisions had yet been made. But given that Labour has been pledging this for some time now, it is reasonable to assume that a ban is in the works.

Indeed, whenever the ban does come in, the policy itself tells you all you need to know about Ed Miliband’s eco-zealotry. Just like those raving Just Stop Oil activists, he seems to think that the Net Zero ends will always justify the means. Get threatened with lawsuits from furious firms that were fully expecting to go drilling? No problem. Get lambasted by the Unite the Union boss for the inevitable loss of jobs? No big deal – even if a total of 200,000 posts are potentially at stake. Force the UK to rely more heavily on importing foreign oil and gas? Miliband is not bothered about this either.

When the ban does go ahead, Miliband’s green fantasies will finally be tested in the real world. Back in February, he told a Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow that investment in renewable energy would create hundreds of thousands of jobs. Apparently, Scotland would become the ‘clean energy capital’ of the UK.

This was and remains magical thinking. In 2022, every part of the offshore-wind sector employed an estimated 11,300 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs. The onshore-wind sector employed 6,600. For solar energy and hydroelectric power, the estimates are 9,000 and 1,100 FTEs respectively. So even if Labour is successful in meeting its 2030 output targets of quadrupling and doubling offshore and onshore wind (plus tripling solar power) the numbers definitely don’t add up. Miliband’s promise to create hundreds of thousands of jobs unmasks him either as dishonest or unable to do his multiplication tables.

While Keir Starmer has promised to lead a government that is pragmatic and ‘unburdened by doctrine’, Miliband’s North Sea oil ban exposes this as hollow. It reveals a party all too willing to sacrifice the economy and living standards at the altar of Net Zero. This is nothing short of a disaster in the making.

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