Ed Miliband is Britain’s minister for good vibes

LIVERPOOL, England — Never mind the fiscal blackhole, here’s Ed Miliband.

A rainy Labour Party conference in Liverpool was haunted this week by the specter of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ imminent, cost-cutting Budget. It was overshadowed by a row over top government figures getting freebies from wealthy donors.

But one Cabinet minister has been determined to bring the sunshine.

“Tough times mean we don’t lower our sights, we raise them,” said Energy Secretary Ed Miliband in his conference speech on Monday afternoon.

In a government so far defined by downbeat messages about the fiscal inheritance left them by the Conservatives, and warnings to voters about “painful” spending decisions to come, Miliband has carved out a role as de-facto secretary of state for hope and change — and it’s been on show in Liverpool.

Every day in government, he told the party faithful, is “a chance in our time to write a new chapter in the history of our great country.” He boasted about the speed with which his department had been making decisions, “in a few short weeks” after getting into office. Miliband’s been pledging to create jobs in renewable energy, bring down consumer bills and make the U.K. a global leader on climate action.

The speech was light on new policy — notwithstanding a pledge to upgrade energy efficiency standards in social housing. But Labour members, who once picked Miliband as their leader for an ill-fated five-year spell, greeted him with a standing ovation.

The hopey-changey vibes even appeared to have infected Reeves. Two weeks after the chancellor was told she risked undermining the economy, so doom-laden had she become, her own conference speech also leaned into Labour’s energy and infrastructure plans as she searched out a vision for the future.

Not everyone shares Miliband’s buoyant mood, however. Oil and gas companies are furious at his plans to ban new drilling licences in the North Sea. Some local communities are organizing against his proposals for more pylons, solar farms and wind turbines across England’s green and pleasant land.

Richard Tice, deputy leader of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, a growing force on the political right, calls Miliband the “zealot-in-chief” and “the most dangerous man to the British economy.” All have the potential to cause serious trouble in the future.

On the conference floor at least, the energy secretary’s good vibes found a receptive audience.

“Optimism in the conference hall is certainly higher now than it was at the start of the week,” said Paul McNamee, director of the grassroots Labour Climate and Environment Forum group. He hailed “storming speeches from Ed Miliband and [Environment Secretary] Steve Reed.”

Return of the Mil

It’s a remarkable reinvention for Miliband. Ten years ago this week he was delivering his last party conference speech as leader of the opposition. That occasion is now best-remembered for what he forgot to say: anything about the budget deficit or immigration. The country duly rejected him at the 2015 general election the next year.

Now, Miliband is on his 29^th party conference — and has become something of a cult figure for Labour’s younger, green-minded members. RenewableUK, the industry association, was even offering delegates free cappuccinos with Miliband’s face on them.

“It was the role he was born to do,” said Labour MP Toby Perkins, the new chair of the House of Commons environmental audit committee. “He has come into this government with a big to-do list and a real determination to finish the job that he started,” Perkins said, referencing Miliband’s first stint as energy secretary under Gordon Brown between 2008 and 2010, adding: “He’s keen to make up for lost time.”

After two and a half months in government, no Cabinet minister has quite as much material for his conference drinks reception stump speeches as Miliband.

Lifting England’s de facto ban on onshore wind, giving planning permission to four giant solar farms, introducing legislation to set up publicly-owned power company GB Energy — the list is now wearily familiar to the energy industry lobbyists tracking Miliband at conference.

But it’s evidence of just how much agency Miliband has been given within the wider Starmer-Reeves political project.

One energy industry executive who has spoken with Starmer about the government’s clean energy plans came away struck by the free rein Miliband has been given by the PM. “He’s empowered Ed Miliband. He trusts his team to go and do it,” the executive said.

And if the going gets tougher in the months ahead, Miliband insists he’s braced for those battles.

“There’s this phrase in the tech world, ‘move fast and break things’,” he told a group of green activists at a Labour conference drinks reception on Sunday evening.

“I’m not so in favor of that — but ‘move fast and build things’ … That’s my motto.”