Does Keir Starmer hate tree huggers, or does someone else hate Ed Miliband?

Good morning. The Times reported yesterday that Ed Miliband recently gave a presentation to the Shadow Cabinet on green energy policy to which the Shadow Net Zero Secretary’s boss responded: “I hate tree huggers”.

The Labour leader reportedly told his Shadow Cabinet that he was interested in the new jobs that the plans potentially offered but not, a source told the Times, in the “hope and change” stuff, before airing his views on “tree huggers”.

Several things to say about this, first amongst them being: did Keir Starmer actually say that, or did someone just decide to Put It In The Newspaper that he was mad?

Personally I don’t think the Labour leader spouting off about tree-huggers seems enormously likely, not because I can lay any claims to knowing Keir’s heart on this matter, but because it’s just kind of a weird thing to say, and he is a famously careful man (tired voice: he was a lawyer, remember?) who doesn’t really just say weird things. It’s a little hammy, a little on the nose. A Labour source tells us Starmer “didn’t use those words”, though didn’t specify what words Starmer did use, either.

People have been briefing against Miliband for some time now, and so whether it’s true or not makes it no less interesting; it seems to suggest there remains an active lobby at the top of the party seeking to undermine or further water down Labour’s £28 billion-a-year green transition commitments.

Note Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who said in June Labour would reach that annual spending by the second half of the next parliament “at the latest”, made clear on Sunday it would only reach it “subject to our fiscal rules”. Anyway, I hope you’re all enjoying the coldest summer of the rest of your lives.

In other news likely to make the Labour membership very happy and enthusiastic and feel really good about everything, another report from the weekend suggests that the party plans to follow Conservative fiscal policies “until growth returns to the ailing economy”. This seems to rule out the “get into government and tell everyone you’ve looked at the books and sadly have no choice but to do a wealth tax, for the economy” approach.

Despite the detractions of the haters and losers, Miliband has been back at it today promoting the release of further information about the party’s warm homes plan, which pledges to cut bills through more environmentally friendly retrofits of insulation. Miliband says: “The only way to end the cost-of-living crisis is to bring down energy bills for good.”

Meanwhile, David Lammy will later today announce that in government Labour would update the ministerial code so that ministers are compelled to comply with international law and the obligations of treaties Britain has signed.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary will tell the Bingham Centre for International Law: “The principle that will underpin the next Labour government’s foreign policy is the rule of law. Because it is the right thing to do. Because it is in our interests in a newly dangerous and divided world. And frankly because it is fundamental to this Shadow Cabinet’s DNA, led by Keir Starmer.”

According to the TUC, workers in the UK will end up short £3600 as a result of wages not keeping pace with OECD averages. Also possibly facing a hit to their cash flow today is the Labour Party: later today, fresh off the weekend’s Durham miners’ gala at their conference, Unite will debate a motion on disaffiliation from Labour. It’s thought unlikely to pass but will represent a significant blow to the party’s coffers if it does.

This weekend also saw a few selections; in Rochester and Strood, local councillor Lauren Edwards was picked to fight the seat, while in Plymouth Moor View (reselecting following the previous nominee’s retirement from the contest due to ill health) former Royal Marines captain Fred Thomas will be Labour’s candidate.

Thomas will take on veterans’ minister Johnny Mercer, who often discusses his time in the military; no doubt. Another veteran, Paul Foster, was picked as Labour’s candidate in South Ribble. 

You can watch first minister Mark Drakeford take questions here from 11am on the Welsh government’s annual report, setting out its successes and challenges to date reaching its 10 “wellbeing objectives” for this Senedd term, from high-quality healthcare to an economy based on “fair work”, a greener economy to tackling inequality.

In more news about people everybody likes, yesterday’s Sunday Times carried a report about Gordon Brown’s work on a “multibank” (a food bank that provides a wide variety of goods).The former Prime Minister has been working with Amazon and other suppliers to provide goods to those in need, showing there’s more to post-Downing Street life than handsomely paid private dinners.