By DAVID WILCOCK, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 10:14 BST, 28 September 2025 | Updated: 10:14 BST, 28 September 2025
A senior union leader today suggested Keir Starmer needs to sack Ed Miliband and bin his Net Zero zealotry in order to get Britain making things again.Unite general secretary Sharon Graham hit out at the Energy and Net Zero secretary over the closure of two oil refineries - Grangemouth in Scotland and Lindsey in Lincolnshire - in less than a year.She accuse him of having 'no plan' for how to replace the jobs lost in the industry, which she said could hit 30,000 by 2030, saying 'we have to make things here'.She is the latest figure to hit out at Mr Miliband, who refused to relinquish his job at the recent reshuffle. The PM is said to have asked Mr Miliband to take over Angela Rayner's housing department as he reshaped his team.However, Mr Miliband refused - insisting he wanted to keep overseeing the climate drive.In a scathing attack on Labour and its links to Unite on Sky News' Sunday with Trevor Phillips, Ms Graham said he was overseeing 'a Net Zero plan that has workers at the end of the queue'.'The person that needs to be in that job is somebody who understands really clearly that this must be a workers’ transition,' she said. Asked if Mr Miliband understood it, she added: 'I think so far he hasn’t understood it, if he did understand it I wouldn’t have two refineries closing in less than a year.' Unite general secretary Sharon Graham accused the Energy and Net Zero Secretary of having 'no plan' for how to replace the jobs lost in the industry, which could hit 30,000 by 2030 She is the latest figure to hit out at Mr Miliband, who refused to relinquish his job at the recent reshuffle. Two oil refineries - Grangemouth in Scotland (above) and Lindsey in Lincolnshire - have ceased production in less than a year.She added: We are all scratching our heads because they have just agreed to the third runway at Heathrow. Great, we lobbied for it. 'You have got Grangemouth that can produce the green aviation fuel you are going to need. 'How can you say you are going to have the third runway where you need green aviation fuel and allow the very refinery that can make it to be turned into an import terminal? 'That makes no sense and nobody can understand what is going on in relation to that.'Grangemouth owner Petroineos announced last year the refinery would be turning into an import terminal, leaving Scotland without its own refinery and posing one of the first major tests of both the UK and Scottish governments in their push for a just transition away from oil and gas.Repeated attempts to halt the closure ultimately failed, with the loss of around 100 jobs, though plans for future use of the site have been put in motion as both governments seek external investment.As a result of the closure in May, manufacturing output in Scotland reduced by 4.1 per cent that month.
