Energy security and net secretary Zero Ed Miliband refused to say if he personally supports the expansion of Heathrow airport.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that the Labor government would support the airport plans for a third track last month in the continuation of its economic growth program.
As a work manager in 2010, Miliband reversed his party’s support for Heathrow’s expansion with regard to concerns about environmental impact.
Pushed if he changed his mind, Miliband said: “I am part of the government and I respect collective responsibility.”
“I was part of the decision-making process and the decision is that Rachel Reeves explained,” he said, adding that he “did not obscure” when he supported his previous position.
Collective responsibility is the rule that the cabinet must act as a person on government decisions.
Miliband later told the TODAY program that a final decision on the expansion of Heathrow was “a few years off”, the addition of the proposal will have to meet carbon budgets and local environmental standards to approve.
He also refused to declare his personal position on the pink oil field, another project to which he previously opposed for environmental reasons.
Miliband argued that he had “different responsibilities” now as Minister of the Government that in opposition, when he described development as “a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money” and “economic vandalism” .
There will be an “appropriate process”, he said, so the decision is made in a fair and objective manner.
Nor the problems of resignation either, said Miliband, adding “what I do is now a huge difference – this is the fight of our time”.
He said that he “completely rejected” “that there is a choice between economic growth and the net zero, arguing that clean energy offers” the greatest economic opportunity of the 21st century “for jobs and the planet.
On energy bills, he said: “I fear that the invoices keep climbing” unless there was a transition to “the power of the clean house that we control”.
Miliband was also questioned about the launch of a consultation on the plans to ensure that all rental properties have a Certificate of Energy Performance (EPC) of C or Higher.
He accepted that adding additional insulation to the rented accommodation would increase invoices for owners, who can adopt this cost to tenants in the form of higher rents.
However, Miliband said this decision was “fair” to do and was supported by associations of worried tenants for wet houses, moldy houses and high energy bills.
