Polanski, Unions Urge Burnham Not to Water Down
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- Zack Polanski told the Guardian that any backsliding on climate action would be a "moral and political failure" that drives Labour "further into obscurity," speaking as the UK endured its second major heatwave this year.
- Unison's Andrea Egan said more North Sea drilling would not help working-class Britons and would be "grossly irresponsible to working-class people in the global south," as climate denial "creeps into politics like never before."
- Wes Streeting and Unite's Sharon Graham pushed the other way, backing approval of the massive Rosebank oilfield; Graham called Ed Miliband's net zero commitment a "noose around the neck" of job creation.
- Critics pointed out that North Sea oil and gas jobs have more than halved in the last decade—from 441,000 to 214,000—despite hundreds of new licences, with 90–93% of viable reserves already drained.
- The Fire Brigades Union's Steve Wright and NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede backed holding the climate line, with Kebede noting this week's heatwave caused "untold disruption" across schools.
- A CBI report found the net zero economy is worth about £100bn a year and is growing faster than the rest of the UK economy while producing higher-paid jobs.
- A senior trade union source said there was widespread unease inside the movement about Unite's pro-drilling posture, warning that Sharon Graham's interventions were "boosting Nigel Farage and his crypto-backers."
Why it matters: With Andy Burnham widely tipped to be the next prime minister, the internal Labour-union fight over North Sea drilling and net zero is now a live succession battle: pro-drilling voices like Wes Streeting and Unite's Sharon Graham want to roll back Ed Miliband's climate commitments, while the Green party, Unison, the FBU and the NEU argue the £100bn net zero economy and a 53% collapse in North Sea oil and gas jobs since 2014 prove the case for doubling down.
