Tom Harris argues that UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s aggressive push for net-zero emissions is straining Labour’s long-standing ties with trade unions, potentially leading to a broader rift.

Harris points to Unite the Union, Labour’s largest historical donor, slashing its annual contributions by £580,000 (about 40%) and launching a member consultation on whether to disaffiliate entirely, amid grievances over government policies.

• Unite’s decision to slash funding and consult on disaffiliation was announced around March 11-12, 2026, coinciding with anniversaries of industrial disputes and escalating union frustration.
• Tensions over net-zero have simmered for months/years. Unions have criticized the lack of a robust “just transition” plan for workers in oil/gas/related industries, while Miliband has defended accelerating renewables as creating future unionized jobs and accused critics of being influenced by vested interests.
• Miliband has pushed back hard, vowing to “double down” on net-zero and framing opposition as part of a right-wing campaign (including from figures like Elon Musk or Reform UK).

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Ed Miliband’s net-zero obsession is breaking the Labour alliance apart

Why should ordinary workers fund a party that doesn’t seem to care about their jobs?

For Keir Starmer, it’s just one existential crisis after another.

Fresh from some unappetising revelations about his judgment in appointing Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, today’s crisis is more prosaic and predictable: one of the biggest trade unions in the country and Labour’s biggest donor historically has announced it will cut its contributions by a mammoth £580,000, or 40 per cent. The Telegraph has the story.

And just in case that wasn’t bad enough for a Labour Party that is already struggling financially, Unite’s general secretary has announced a consultation with her members to decide whether they want to remain a Labour affiliate at all.

Ministers probably have a right to feel indignant about Sharon Graham’s latest broadside. After all, much effort has gone into the Government’s new Employment Rights Act which delivers many of the outstanding demands made by the unions over the years, including a right of access to workplaces even if only a tiny fraction of its employees are members of a union.

There has always been a tension between the party and its trade union backers, a tension that traditionally increases when Labour is in office. And generations of trade unionists and MPs have always managed to resolve conflicts via a mutual understanding and common resolve to unite to beat the Tory opposition. Unfortunately for Starmer, the party and the unions have developed in different ways and in different directions over a number of years to the point where areas of agreement are increasingly thin on the ground and disputes, therefore, more difficult to resolve.

For a start, we are long past the era when Labour Cabinet ministers were seasoned former trade union officials themselves. Trade union activism, such as it is, is no longer the preserve of horny-handed sons (or daughters) of toil. It is simply something that ambitious graduates make sure they have before they embark on a political career that will take them from Oxford to Parliament as an MP’s researcher, to special adviser working for a Cabinet minister, and thence to elected office.

Read the full story here.