Oil and gas Unions lobby Labour for a 'just transition' to green energy

Peace may have broken out between Labour and its union backers over workers' rights, but shadow ministers face fierce lobbying in another vital policy area: how to make the switch from fossil fuels without deep economic scarring.

- Heather Stewart

Unions representing tens of thousands of oil and gas workers, in particular GMB and Unite, are demanding urgent answers about what will happen to members' jobs as the UK switches to cleaner energy sources.

When Labour dropped its £28bn green spending pledge earlier this year, it stuck to the promise of generating all the UK's energy from green sources by 2030, saying it would create 400,000 jobs in the process. But unions with a significant presence in oil and gas are concerned that the gap between that aspiration and the taxpayer funding Labour is willing to make available could leave their members high and dry.

The GMB has made no secret of its scepticism about Labour's plan to ban new North Sea oil and gas licences. Its general secretary, Gary Smith, last year called the plan naive, blaming "a lack of intellectual rigour".

With Labour deemed unlikely to change course, however, discussions have shifted to how the party could use industrial policy to create new jobs in the north-east of Scotland, where the oil and gas workforce is concentrated. Unions are desperate to avoid a repeat of the abrupt closure of the UK's coalmining industry and have demanded a "just transition".

On Friday, Unite's leader, Sharon Graham, kicked off a provocative new poster campaign aimed squarely at Labour, with the slogan: "No ban without a plan".