Labour’s green agenda has come under fierce attack from one of its most powerful allies after the head of the GMB union accused Sir Keir Starmer of pursuing policies that are “destroying” British jobs.
In a remarkable intervention, Gary Smith, the general secretary of the trade union and a longstanding supporter of Labour, compared the economic consequences of the party’s energy policies to the deindustrialisation associated with Margaret Thatcher’s premiership.
The criticism represents one of the most serious challenges yet to Labour’s Net Zero strategy from within its traditional political coalition, exposing growing tensions between environmental ambitions and the livelihoods of workers in Britain’s industrial heartlands.
Mr Smith warned that the Government’s approach to decarbonisation was already damaging factories, investment and employment across the country.
His comments were particularly striking given the GMB’s historic links to the Labour Party and the union movement’s central role in helping secure Labour’s return to power.
The row centres on the Government’s determination to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels, including its pledge to phase out new North Sea oil and gas developments and rapidly expand renewable energy generation.
Ministers argue that the shift will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, reduce Britain’s dependence on volatile international energy markets and place the country at the forefront of the global green economy.
At the heart of that argument is Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s claim that investment in clean energy industries will generate long-term prosperity while insulating households and businesses from future energy shocks.
But Mr Smith has dismissed such claims in uncompromising terms.
He described suggestions that workers displaced from traditional energy industries would simply move into green jobs as “utter nonsense” and accused ministers of ignoring the realities facing industrial communities.
Mr Smith told the Radio Times: “Sacking thousands of workers who currently work in the North Sea is economic madness.
“The impact they’re having is shameful. It’s more akin to Thatcher and what she did to Middlesbrough in the 1980s.
“We’re losing jobs in places like Aberdeen. But remember, many oil and gas workers come from areas like the northeast of England too.
“Putting these people out of work, stopping future generations going to work in decent, well paid, unionised jobs, that’s just crazy.”
For many union leaders, the concern is not opposition to Net Zero itself but the speed and manner in which the transition is being pursued.
They fear Britain is shutting down existing industries before viable alternatives are fully established, leaving workers to bear the costs of policies designed in Whitehall.
The criticism echoes wider concerns across heavy industry, manufacturing and the energy sector, where executives have repeatedly warned that high energy costs and regulatory burdens are undermining Britain’s competitiveness.
Supporters of the Government’s strategy argue that such concerns underestimate the scale of future investment opportunities.
Labour has promised to make Britain a clean energy superpower, pointing to planned investment in offshore wind, carbon capture, hydrogen technology and nuclear power as evidence that new industries will emerge to replace declining sectors.
Yet sceptics note that similar promises have been made before.
Communities that lost coal mines, steelworks and manufacturing plants during previous periods of economic transformation often waited decades for replacement jobs to materialise.
That historical memory helps explain why comparisons with Thatcher remain politically potent.
For many Labour supporters, the economic upheaval of the 1980s remains synonymous with the destruction of industrial employment and the hollowing out of working-class communities.
Mr Smith’s decision to invoke that comparison will therefore be particularly uncomfortable for Downing Street.
The intervention also arrives at a delicate political moment for Sir Keir.
Labour is attempting to balance competing pressures from environmental campaigners demanding faster action on climate change, businesses seeking certainty over investment decisions and trade unions worried about the impact on workers.
That balancing act is becoming increasingly difficult as the costs of transition become more visible.
The dispute is likely to intensify questions over whether Labour can simultaneously pursue aggressive Net Zero targets while protecting traditional industries and securing public support.
For ministers, the challenge will be proving that green jobs are not merely a future promise but a present reality.
For critics such as Mr Smith, the evidence so far points in the opposite direction.
And when one of Labour’s own union allies starts comparing its economic strategy to Thatcherism, Downing Street can no longer dismiss concerns about the political risks of its green agenda.
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