Ed Miliband honed key leadership qualities while energy secretary

Peter Mandelson leaned forward and banged his head against the cabinet table.

It was January 2009 and Gordon Brown's most senior ministers, including the business secretary, were locked in an acrimonious row over the expansion of Heathrow airport.

The architect of the rift was Ed Miliband, seen until then as a mild-mannered junior member of the Labour government.

As the new energy secretary he was determined to block the building of a runway unless he could obtain last-minute environmental concessions, including that only low-emissions planes would be allowed to use the landing slots.

It was the moment colleagues became aware of two of Mr Miliband's key qualities that would eventually take him to the top of his party, and perhaps to 10 Downing Street: his stubbornness and ambition.

"Until then people hadn't necessarily realised how strong and determined he could be," says one ally.

Mr Miliband's period as energy secretary - from October 2008 to May 2010 - offers clues as to how he might try to run the country if the electorate gives him the chance.

Mr Brown, the then prime minister, was enraged by the refusal of his supposed apprentice to compromise over Heathrow: "I remember Ed screaming down the phone at Gordon," says one former official.

That row raised the hackles of numerous colleagues, according to the memoirs of former spin-doctor Damian McBride. Ed Balls, education secretary at the time and now shadow chancellor, was "genuinely outraged" by Mr Miliband's "political positioning", wrote Mr McBride.

Some colleagues thought he had "gone native" by spending too much time with environmentalists.

Another person at the centre of events recalls the minister "delaying and delaying and delaying" the entire project. "Until then we hadn't realised the extent to which he was on leadership manoeuvres already," he says.

<

The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.

Having actively lobbied Mr Brown for the energy job - he was previously a minister at the Cabinet Office - Mr Miliband's first task was creating a new "Department of Energy and Climate Change" from parts of the business and environment ministries.

His arrival marked an acute change of stance from John Hutton, his Blairite predecessor, symbolised by his decision to derail Kingsnorth, a proposed coal-fired power station that had been targeted by environmentalists.

Mr Miliband decided coal-fired power stations could be approved only if they used untested "carbon capture and storage" technology to reduce emissions.

Energy companies fell behind the policy because the state would pay for the technology. The Treasury disliked the idea but was unable to stop it.

"It was an interesting example of his creativity and stubbornness," says Michael Jacobs, former climate adviser at Downing Street. "He was told by DECC officials he couldn't do it, CCS wasn't possible, but he was able to win over the Treasury and came out with all sides agreeing."

Mr Miliband was good at forming relationships at DECC and all officials called him "Ed"-- even the exiles from the business department who were wary about his enthusiasm for renewable energy.

<>One former DECC official recalls Mr Miliband as indecisive, "agonising" about decisions and poring over analysis for hours on end. "There were discussions and papers and more discussions and further discussions with external people and then meetings about what the last person had said," he remembers. "In a way he modelled himself on Gordon Brown, who had a habit of dragging you into the weeds."

Yet the green movement considered him a fellow traveller. "He was something of a deity with environmental groups," says Joss Garman, former Greenpeace political director.

Mr Miliband took a more confrontational approach to the big six energy companies than his predecessors, something he has continued as leader of the opposition. "It was extremely difficult to get a meeting with him for the first nine months," says one energy executive. "He was obviously distrustful of the big corporates. He seemed much more comfortable with the NGOs and the green lobby."

Many executives felt that Mr Miliband was amenable, however. "He was a grown-up," says one.

DECC described itself as a "campaigning department", but within Whitehall it was considered a junior partner to the Treasury and the business department. "If you look at their resources, they were all dedicated towards climate change and energy efficiency, there was very little focus on promoting investment and keeping the lights on," says the energy executive.

Two weeks after his appointment, Mr Miliband announced the government would increase its target for carbon emissions cuts from 60 to 80 per cent by 2050.

He publicly debated with climate change sceptic Lord Lawson, and described opposition to wind farms as "socially unacceptable" as failing to wear a seatbelt.

Mr Miliband spent much of his first year preparing for the Copenhagen climate talks in late 2009. There he managed to salvage some limited success from an otherwise disastrous event.

President Obama prematurely announced a draft agreement before flying back to the US, prompting the ire of some developing countries, who had not been shown the text. The representative from Sudan compared the situation with the Holocaust.

In the early hours of the morning the draft agreement was about to be dropped when Mr Miliband rushed back to the talks from his hotel room. On the floor of the conference he made a passionate plea for a compromise while dismissing the "disgusting" Holocaust metaphor.

Delegates went on to approve a motion to "take note of" the Copenhagen Accord recognising the scientific case for limiting climate change, but it was not legally binding. "He had stubble, he looked like he was about to pass out," says one person present at the event. "In retrospect you might say that Copenhagen was a debacle, but it would have been even worse without him."

On the issue of energy bills Mr Miliband's political agility has prompted criticism, however. He argued in a 2009 speech that the public had to accept energy bills would rise in order to fund measures to tackle climate change. But only a few years later - as Labour leader, in the run-up to a general election - he promised to freeze bills.

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation