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Who will be the big beasts in what we assume will be the next Labor government? This question is important as the country tries to determine where power will lie in a Keir Starmer administration.
Some names are obvious. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, will be the most powerful minister and is already established as the colleague Starmer relies on most. Her two key officials, Morgan McSweeney, the campaign manager, and Sue Gray, chief of staff, will have enormous influence. Some point to Angela Rayner, the deputy leader and ally of the unions, or Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary.
But there is another, less likely figure who is emerging as a major player in the government: Ed Miliband. The former Labor leader, now shadow secretary of state for energy security and net zero emissions, has been on a On the road to rehabilitation since losing the 2015 Cup. election in what seemed like a very personal rejection. He was ridiculed for opposing his older brother for the leadership, mocked for the (completely normal) way in which he ate a bacon sandwich and blamed for changes to party rules that ushered in the Corbyn era. .
More recently, Miliband has had setbacks under Starmer, notably the Reduce its 28 billion pounds annual green investment plan (they had already stripped him of his business report). Reeves’ promotion was seen as evidence that Starmer had moved away from Miliband’s more left-wing agenda towards a more business-friendly stance. Therefore, it would be easy to assume that he will not be a force. However, the opposition’s pressures are different from those of the government. Miliband He has several advantages that should make him much more influential and effective in the position.
He owns one of Starmer’s five core missions: a commitment to clean energy, which he sees as critical to transforming the UK’s industrial economy.
In addition, he has experience at the ministerial level in the same position. Labour Insiders say he is the most advanced of the shadow cabinet in preparing for the first 100 days. He often highlights the lesson learned working as Gordon Brown’s assistant as chancellor: it is essential to arrive on day one with a clear plan of action. Effective ministers emerge. One ally puts it simply: “Ed knows how the government works and how the Labor Party works.”
Among the first measures will be legislation to establish Great British Energy, the new public clean energy company. Other plans include ending the effective moratorium on onshore wind farms and changing the “contracts for difference” pricing scheme to reward companies that invest in areas that are losing traditional energy jobs. He will work closely with Reeves on his £7bn National Wealth Fund, investing in clean technologies.
For Miliband, this is not only a route to lower energy bills, but also, in his view, to put the state back at the center of industrial policy and build a new manufacturing base for green hydrogen, clean steel and carbon capture. carbon. It is this type of talk that worries the more Blairite and market-oriented wing of the Labor Party, which sees it as the thinking that lost in 2015.
He has already demonstrated his ability to shape Labour’s agenda. Two great ecological advertisements Proposals made by Reeves at previous party conferences were ideas developed by Miliband, although his allies now say he regrets agreeing to the £28bn plan without further due diligence.
Although Starmer is less ideological and has left his shared anti-Blairite instincts behind, Miliband is an old friend and close neighbor to north London. As a former leader, he is a senior leader that Starmer can trust and is not looking for his job.
Other former party leaders who later took up cabinet roles, including William Hague and then David Cameron as foreign secretary, have provided ballast to an inexperienced operation and a wise head that can temper naïve enthusiasms. Miliband, on the other hand, remains consciously radical. He, more than Rayner, is likely to emerge as the leading voice of the soft left in the cabinet, the most influential figure urging Starmer to go further and helping him retain the support of that wing of the party.
This raises the possibility that the two main poles of influence in the cabinet will be Reeves and Miliband. Reeves is the most powerful and Miliband would lose in a direct confrontation. As a former leader, he also disapproves of disloyalty. So instead we may see quiet disputes over Starmer’s political soul. Miliband could overplay his hand. Labor centrists worry about “business bashing” and may also foresee a future clash with McSweeney over potentially unpopular green initiatives. Still it will appeal to a radical side of Starmer that is submerged but not sunk.
Starmer does not run a chumocracy. He has proven that he is ruthless enough to degrade his friends, Milibanda included. However, a source says part of the reason Starmer was long evasive about abandoning the £28bn plan was concern about “not letting Ed down”.
Miliband’s own response to that disappointment was revealing. There were no tantrums or angry briefings. He endured the setback because he believes in his ecological mission, sees the prize of power, and believes victory will free a more radical Starmer.
It remains to be seen whether Starmer can be shaken out of his more pragmatic groove. But the battle for the soul of the Labor Party will not end on election day.