Clark and others on the right appear genuinely alarmed by the prospect that Miliband could return to the very top of British politics, and they are doing everything they can to convince voters that his tenure as energy and net zero secretary would spell ruin for the country.
“Net Zero nut could replace Starmer,” screamed the Sun this week.
The target, of course, was Ed Miliband, variously described as an “economic vandal” who is “killing off our North Sea gas.”
The message is clear: imagine the horror if he was ever prime minister?
That question was posed explicitly by Ross Clark. Clark, a regular columnist for virtually all the right-wing outlets, has long made a name for himself questioning climate science and attacking environmental activism. He has dismissed Greta Thunberg as a “well-crafted piece of PR,” labelled Extinction Rebellion a “wannabe Marxist revolution in disguise,” and, wait for it, even described a David Attenborough documentary on climate change as “propaganda.”
He has gone further still, portraying fossil fuel companies as the “unsung heroes” of the modern world and arguing that criticism of them is merely an attempt to “palm off responsibility.”
His hostility to Miliband’s climate agenda is therefore hardly surprising.
And Clark doesn’t mince his words. He likens Miliband to Japanese knotweed: “You think you’ve got rid of him, then up he pops through the drains and before you know it he has destroyed the foundations of your house,” he wrote.
Readers are also reminded that 11 years ago voters “comprehensively rejected” Miliband’s bid for the premiership.
Yet the vehemence of the attack suggests something more than historical score-settling. Increasingly, Clark and others on the right appear genuinely alarmed by the prospect that Miliband could return to the very top of British politics, and they are doing everything they can to convince voters that his tenure as energy and net zero secretary would spell ruin for the country.
Clark’s article speculates that Keir Starmer’s leadership could be mortally wounded after the May local elections, opening the door to a successor. He notes that Andy Burnham was blocked from standing in a by-election, while Miliband consistently tops polls of the most popular cabinet minister among Labour members, meaning, Clark warns, that he “could easily sneak through.”
To bolster the case that Miliband’s policies are already causing devastation, Clark leans on a report from the Jobs Foundation. Remember them? – a so-called charity formed by senior business figures and political operatives to “unleash the power of business,” which bears striking similarities to the US-style backlash against so-called “woke capitalism.” That movement is driven largely by right-wing opportunists, fossil-fuel-linked interests, and free-market climate-sceptic think-tanks.
Climate change denial sits at the heart of the anti-ESG movement and unsurprisingly, the Sun and other right-wing newspapers regularly amplify Jobs Foundation reports.
Clark, meanwhile, doubles down: “Miliband is an economic vandal who has inflicted damage which Just Stop Oil protesters could only dream about.”
Indeed, Miliband remains popular among Labour members. He ranked highest across every age demographic for delivery in government by Labour members, according to an exclusive LabourList poll in October last year. Far from being a liability, he is one of the party’s most effective and popular figures.
What truly rattles the anti-climate-action brigade is not Miliband’s supposed incompetence, but his seriousness. He is a politician who genuinely treats climate breakdown as the defining challenge of our time, and who understands that protecting jobs and protecting the planet are inseparable.
For those invested in delay, denial, and the continued dominance of fossil fuels, that makes Ed Miliband far more dangerous than any protester blocking a road. And whisper it softly and not for the ears of the Ross Clarks of this world, but I’m not sure Miliband wants to be prime minister. He has been Labour leader and has the scars to show for it. Above all, he knows he is doing an important job successfully where he is, which is the main reason he attracts so much right-wing ire.
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