Starmer risks chop from voters for being such a green meanie

The Labour leader is treading a dangerous eco path with his ‘love trees, hate tree huggers’ mantra, writes Katie Edwards. It could prove decisive at the ballot box

This looks less like articulation and a lot more like self-sabotage (PA Wire)

You might be forgiven for thinking Keir Starmer’s latest clanger was a joke. How else to explain the leader of the Labour party apparently proclaiming publicly that he “hates tree huggers”?

His alleged outburst followed a presentation from climate and net zero spokesman Ed Miliband, who is said to have told his colleagues of the “hope and change” his policies would bring, receiving only a lukewarm reception from Starmer.

At which point Starmer is said to have “exploded”, according to an onlooker. The source told The Sunday Times: “He said he was not interested in tree huggers, before adding to everyone’s surprise, ‘In fact, I hate tree huggers’.”

Considering Starmer’s speech extolling the virtues of oracy just the other day, this looks less like articulation and a lot more like self-sabotage.

How else to explain the same source telling The Sunday Times that Starmer “was more interested in creating sustainable new jobs to replace jobs in old sectors that were being lost”?

Now, I’m from a former mining town in South Yorkshire that was left for dead after the decimation of the pits in the 1980s. My home town has never recovered. There was no industry and no jobs to replace the ones that were made obsolete.

So, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for sustainable new jobs to replace jobs that were lost in old sectors. After all, better (four decades) late than never. But hating tree huggers? Starmer’s comment makes it sound as if the people who support the regeneration of deprived towns don’t support the environment. It doesn’t make any rational sense.

But it’s not only Starmer.

During a Sunday morning appearance on Sky News, Reeves attempted to address questions about Labour’s commitment to the environment by saying that she “cares passionately about tackling the climate emergency”.

She added: “Look, I love a tree, but what I don’t like is needless disruption to people’s lives. You aren’t going to solve the climate emergency by stopping people going to work and stopping sporting events. Think again. You’re not helping, you’re making things worse.”

If you thought that New Labour’s cheesy “Things Can Only Get Better” campaign in 1996 was naff, it seems that 2023’s Labour Party has dispensed with the cheese in favour of jumping the shark.

But what this really shows, in my opinion, is the deepening rift between Starmer and his predecessor. Miliband, after all, has proved his green credentials: he’s shadow climate change secretary and has consistently spearheaded Labour’s green agenda, working closely on the party’s policy proposal of a £100bn “green prosperity” plan.

Miliband suggested setting aside of £28bn a year for capital spending on green growth in 2021 and has called for a commitment to ban new oil and gas developments in the North Sea.

It was he who suggested the idea of imposing a windfall tax on Big Oil, which Rishi Sunak later imposed, and the creation of Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean energy company.

Miliband has his finger on the pulse of “green” Labour and net zero. And voters like me want it.

So, I’m just not sure “love the tree, hate the hugger” is the right road for Labour to go down. Then again, what do I know? I’m just a long-term Labour voter who’s wondering what on earth is going on with my party...