Ed Miliband’s green policies could cost Labour the next election

Almost a decade on from Scottish Labour’s 2015 general election wipe out, a spectre is once again haunting the party in Scotland – the spectre of Ed Miliband. Apparently not content with his role in leading the party to near oblivion in Scotland eight years ago, the shadow secretary of state for climate change and net zero is now determined to stifle its recovery as well.

Miliband’s latest manoeuvres began more than a week ago, when he engineered an announcement that a future Labour government would not grant any new licences for oil and gas production in the North Sea. The announcement caused consternation not just from the industry itself, but also the Scottish Labour party, which was infuriated with its timing and largely blindsided by the policy shift. Many Labour MSPs – including some who remember the Miliband years all too well – were incandescent, and with good reason. 

A ban on new licences would be economically ruinous for the north-east of Scotland, leaving the industry and its tens of thousands of employees facing a cliff-edge end to production.