The Energy Secretary topped a Cabinet poll of the Labour membership this week, having let it be known that he – among many other ministers – had raised concerns about those welfare cuts.
He has also been busy building the case for net zero and GB Energy, two policies that wind up critics, but about which Miliband has the sort of missionary zeal which means he will ignore even more reasonable objections. He was happy to say that the Government is “absolutely up for the fight” on net zero after Kemi Badenoch announced this week that it was “impossible” to reach the target by 2050. “This is the growth opportunity of the 21st century,” he argued.
Other colleagues are enjoying it less, with a regular rumbling of briefings against Miliband from figures who think his net zero agenda doesn’t add up, and who dislike how popular he is among the grass roots. They, not unreasonably, point out that the general public offered a rather different take on him when he was leader.
Before Labour came to power, Keir Starmer and his team ended up dealing with the political equivalent of an oil spill from the then shadow energy secretary when he was suggesting that Labour would effectively shut the industry down. It went down like a lead balloon with Scottish Labour, still smarting from its decimation in the 2015 election when Miliband was leader, and with trade unions like the GMB.
square KITTY DONALDSON
Reeves won’t borrow more - whatever desperate backbenchers sayRead More
A lot of this resentment in fact reflects that Miliband is an extraordinarily effective politician. Having been a secretary of state in the last Labour government, he knows how to get things done, both within a department and in the political arena.
Miliband also benefits from his boss’s deliberate refusal to have a worldview. Starmer has insisted, almost boasted, that there is no such thing as Starmerism because he sees himself as pragmatic. But that does leave a vacuum for other forceful ministers to make their mark – just look at how Wes Streeting and Bridget Phillipson are changing public services to fit their ideologies – and Miliband knows how to fill the gap.
He also disliked shadow ministers doing exactly the thing he is so good at now, which was striking out on their own and trying to create something of a personal brand. He saw this as being disloyal, rather than – as he would presumably now argue – just someone putting a lot of energy and belief into a job.
Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of ‘The Spectator’ magazine
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Ed Miliband is really enjoying himself )
Also on site :