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Unite has reportedly put Ed Miliband on notice: approve North Sea drilling or watch Labour haemorrhage council seats in May.

Sharon Graham, the union’s general secretary, is understood to have said blocking new oil and gas exploration was damaging the party ahead of local elections at a time when the Iran war is pushing energy bills higher. The alleged warning lands as unions across the board turn on the Government’s net zero programme.

Graham is reported to have said: “The Government’s energy policies in both Westminster and Holyrood are putting jobs and energy security at risk. This is an act of self-harm, and Labour will certainly pay the price in the May elections.

“Unite has a clear and stark message as energy bills rocket due to the Iran war – we must keep the North Sea working and fund a concrete plan for jobs. Voters can see that it is a big mistake to let go of one rope before we have hold of another.”

The Express has reported on how Miliband has dug in against opening up Rosebank — the country’s largest untapped oil field, sitting on an estimated 300 million barrels — and has yet to grant a drilling licence for the Jackdaw gas field, which analysts say could meet around six per cent of Britain’s annual gas demand.

Pressure from all sides

The Energy Secretary is being pulled from every direction. Reeves has gone on record saying she would be “very happy” to see work begin at both sites. A string of Labour MPs have made the same case.

Henry Tufnell, a Labour backbencher, is reported by the Telegraph to have said drilling in the North Sea was “vital for our own domestic energy security and is good for the economy, with increased tax receipts and jobs.”

Luke Akehurst, also on the Labour benches, said in the same report: “There’s no contradiction between developing renewable energy sources and nuclear and using our remaining reserves of North Sea oil and gas.”

North of the border, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has thrown his weight behind approving the licences. His party is braced for a difficult night in May’s Holyrood contest, with some projections putting it in third place.

Union revolt

Graham is not alone. GMB general secretary Gary Smith used the weekend to demand a wholesale reassessment of net zero, invoking the spectre of deindustrialisation. He reportedly said it would be “shameful if a Labour government were to preside over in Aberdeen what Thatcher did to Middlesbrough in the 1980s.”

Graham’s relationship with Downing Street has been deteriorating for months. She slashed Unite’s financial contributions to the party by 40 per cent last month, telling Sir Keir directly that her members were “coming to the end of the line” with his leadership.

The electoral arithmetic is stark. Polling points to Labour surrendering large numbers of council seats on May 7 as support drains to Reform UK and the Greens. Westminster insiders are already gaming out what follows for Sir Keir’s position.

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay travelled to Glasgow on Monday to accuse Miliband of wilful ignorance on energy.

“The reality is we cannot afford to be reliant on a volatile energy market dominated by countries that are no friends of ours in many respects, and we will need oil and gas for decades to come,” he told reporters.

“It’s not difficult to understand. Ed Miliband appears to be one of the last people in the country who doesn’t get these basic facts.”