Tag: Ed Miliband

The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business Secretary, on 23 April 2021.

This is a huge victory in the fight for justice for the subpostmasters affected by this appalling decades-long scandal, in the face of inaction from government.

But there are so many other names to clear. For some who lost their homes and their reputations, it’s too late.

We’re pushing for a proper Inquiry with teeth to get the bottom of how this scandal can have happened – and who was responsible – to deliver the justice those impacted need and deserve. The Government’s inquiry risks being a whitewash.

The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business Secretary, on 19 April 2021.

The character of this government on climate change is now clear: targets without delivery. So while any strengthening of our targets is the right thing to do, the Government can’t be trusted to match rhetoric with reality.

Ministers have failed to bring forward an ambitious green recovery, passing up three major fiscal events to do so. They are flirting with proposals for a new deep coal mine, axed the vital housing retrofit scheme, and are way off track for our net zero targets.

We need a government that treats the climate emergency as the emergency it is. That means greater ambition than this government matched with much more decisive action. This year, as hosts of COP26, the UK has a particular responsibility to lead the world and show the way forward for a greener future. This Government isn’t up to the task.

The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business Secretary, on 19 April 2021.

To rebuild our economy, we need to harness the dynamism and creativity of our nation’s entrepreneurs. They need strategic and targeted investment, allocated based on the strengths and drive of potential business founders, not the favours or promises of former business contacts.

These business founders and small businesses across the country should be at the heart of our economic recovery, yet too many are being held back because of the unfair distribution of funding to help them start up and scale up.

There are hardworking and innovative business founders being left out in the cold by the Conservatives. With Labour, they will get the backing they need to succeed.

The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business Secretary, on 11 March 2021.

After months of pressure, Ministers have finally been forced to act.

The truth is that this mine is terrible for our fight against climate change, won’t help our steel industry and won’t create secure jobs.

The saga of this mine is a symptom of a government that isn’t serious about its climate ambitions and refuses to invest at scale in a green future to provide the jobs that workers have a right to expect.

The Government must now block the mine and focus instead on real solutions to secure the long-term future of UK steel – and create low-carbon jobs in Cumbria and across the country with a proper green stimulus.

The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business Secretary, on 10 March 2021.

Any investment in the offshore wind industry in the Humber and Teesside is welcome. But the problem is that across our country government is not investing at nearly the scale that is required to deliver the level of employment in the offshore wind industry we need and workers have a right to expect.

We are way behind even the Government’s target of 60 per cent of offshore wind infrastructure being produced in the UK rather than overseas.

That’s why Labour has called for a green recovery plan, a £30bn investment in low-carbon sectors to create 400,000 jobs.

The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business Secretary, on 4 March 2021.

The Business Secretary has revealed his true agenda and now we can see plain as day his devotion to the market and his aversion to supporting industry. Scrapping the Industrial Strategy Council is another sign of what’s to come – a binned industrial strategy and a Government that simply gets out of the way.

Now we have a Secretary of State for Industrial Strategy that doesn’t believe in an industrial strategy – that’s no surprise after yesterday’s Budget which failed to support our manufacturers and a green recovery.

Labour believes in a strong partnership between businesses and government, actively working together to grow industry, create wealth and jobs, and tackle the issues facing our society including inequality and the climate emergency.

The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business Secretary, on 2 March 2021.

Labour is a firm proponent of high ambition, cutting edge science and research and we will continue to support and champion the work of our country’s scientists. We support the creation of an agency for high-risk science, if it is created with and rooted in the science community.

But ‘maximum flexibility’ sounds like an excuse for no competition. The Government’s procurement has been riddled by conflicts of interests and lack of transparency.

Ministers must not use ARIA as cover for further cronyism, and there will be further concerns raised by the news that the agency will have a blanket FOI exemption. Taxpayers have a right to know how and in whom their money is being invested.