Ed Miliband MP: speeches

Speeches

• 21 Jan 2026 · Warm Homes Plan · Hansard source

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  The target we are setting in this plan for 2030 is 450,000. Our skills taskforce is designed to do what my hon. Friend set out, which is to meet the skills needs—the very significant skills needs—we are going to have. On the first part of my hon. Friend’s question, I do think that the Chancellor deserves real credit for this plan, because she has recognised the importance of long-term public investment, which the last Government singularly did not. The easy thing in difficult times is to cut public investment, but she did not do that. She has increased it, and she is investing very significantly in this area.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Warm Homes Plan · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend speaks with typical eloquence on this issue, which came up at the mayors meeting on Monday, when we discussed how we will ensure that the FE sector in particular is geared up to train people for these opportunities. We will work on this with Skills England and mayors, and Ministers will be taking it forward.

• 14 Jan 2026 · Offshore Wind · Hansard source

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  I would really like to do that. The Prime Minister and I, with the Chancellor and indeed the First Minister of Wales, had a fantastic visit to north Wales when we announced our small modular reactors there, and the excitement among the students at the college about the future we are building was so palpable to see. I must say that that is the difference between the Government and the Opposition. We are embracing that future and building that future for those young people; they, frankly, are selling those young people down the river.

• 6 Jan 2026 · Energy Jobs: Yorkshire and the Humber · Hansard source

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  I congratulate York College on its work. I know from my constituency in Doncaster, where we are to get a second university technical college specialising in green skills, the importance of that and the excitement of young people about this future. By turning their backs on clean energy, the Opposition turn their backs on young people. Clean energy is the future—it is one of the fastest growing sectors. We want it for Britain, we want it for York and we want it for Doncaster, and we will make it happen.

• 1 Dec 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  Let me make a bit more progress. My second point is about public spending. In the spending review and the Budget, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor made the crucial decision not to return to austerity. She could have made a different choice and cut public services—I think that is what Conservative Members would go back to doing—but we know the impact of that approach from the last 14 years. This is about the living standards of millions of people across our country who cannot buy their way into private health care or private schools. This can be hidden by the smokescreen that Conservative Members want to put up, but the Chancellor has made the incredibly important decision to invest in the future. That has enabled the Government to cut NHS waiting lists by more than 200,000, roll out free breakfast clubs in schools, expand free school meals, fund the expansion of free childcare, and announce the biggest boost to investment in social and affordable housing in a generation. Conservative Members are back to austerity.

• 25 Nov 2025 · COP30 · Hansard source

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  That is a good point to end on. I congratulate the students at Ashlawn school for their interest. With the greatest of respect to all Members of this House, the young people at that school will have to live with the consequences of the decisions we make for much longer than us. I intend to live for a long time; nevertheless, they are the people who will have to deal with those consequences. We owe it to them to focus on doing everything we can to tackle this issue. My hon. Friend is absolutely right that the only way we can do that is by working with other countries and by putting our faith not in letting each other sink or swim but in multilateralism. For all its flaws, that is what this COP was about and that is what the COP process is about. People should not despair because, actually, over 30 years, the world has made progress.

• 14 Oct 2025 · Great British Energy: Public Sector Renewable Energy Use · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on being a school governor and on the work the school is doing. We can talk about the tangible benefits, but the wider point is that young people want us to act on these issues, and that is part of having an education system that teaches them about the benefits of moving towards clean energy. When I go into schools, there is massive enthusiasm for that kind of initiative.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Green Industries: Supply Chain Jobs · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady raises an important issue. Later this year, we will publish a clean energy skills plan to address precisely this question: how do we make sure we equip workers with the skills they need to take advantage of those jobs? That is being led by my right hon. Friend the Education Secretary in the work she is doing with Skills England, but there is a whole range of things we can do. For the first time, the Government will publish what the skills needs are for clean energy jobs and how we will meet them, which will be an important step forward.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Clean Power: Jobs · Hansard source

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  I love Harlow, Mr Speaker, and I love Harlow college. The visits I have made to the college have been incredibly inspiring; I have seen with my own eyes the enthusiastic young people there and spoken to them about green skills and the jobs of the future. When I think about what this Government intend to deliver, it is absolutely about my hon. Friend’s constituents in Harlow.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Clean Power: Jobs · Hansard source

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  I warmly congratulate Steve Willis Training on its 25 years in operation and on the work it is doing. The hon. Lady makes an important point: we can help to create jobs in the private sector, but the question then is whether people will have the skills to fill them. Organisations and companies like Steve Willis Training are fundamental to that. Sometimes it requires lots of training; sometimes it requires shorter amounts of training to retrain people in new technologies like heat pumps. It is vital that that training happens.

• 14 Jul 2025 · State of Climate and Nature · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend’s school on what it is doing and on its green flag status, which is really important. It shows that local action can really make a difference. Globally, I can give him the assurance that he seeks. What is so important—I say this to Members across the House—is that people look to Britain and say, “Are you going to lead? Are you going to show the power of example?” That is what we have done over 20 years, under Governments of both parties, and we need to keep doing it.