Labour Ignores Coal Mine-Shaped Elephant in the Room

Questions over compensation and employment could make it politically difficult for Labour to scrap the Whitehaven project, experts told DeSmog.
Phoebe Cooke headshot - credit Laura King Photography
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Demonstrators outside the proposed Woodhouse Colliery, south of Whitehaven, September 2021. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Labour has been urged to clarify its stance on the UKโ€™s first deep coal mine in more than 30 years โ€“ as it fights an election campaign that has put clean energy at the fore.

The proposed mine in Whitehaven, Cumbria, would extract 2.8 million tonnes of coking coal a year from under the Irish sea to produce steel, emitting an estimated 220 millions tonnes of greenhouse gases over its lifetime.

The mine has become a political flashpoint in discussions over the UKโ€™s commitment to reach net zero by 2050. In 2021, the International Energy Agency concluded that any new fossil fuel extraction was incompatible with global decarbonisation targets.

Ahead of a widely predicted victory at the 4 July election, Labourโ€™s lack of clarity on the polluting mine poses awkward questions for a party that has based its manifesto on making Britain โ€œa clean energy superpowerโ€.

In the new manifesto, launched last week, Labour says it will not revoke existing oil and gas licences, but will also not grant any new licences. The party has explicitly ruled out issuing licences for new coal mines and says it will ban fracking for good.

The Woodhouse Colliery was granted planning permission by then Conservative levelling up secretary Michael Gove in December 2022, but has been plagued by controversy over its environmental impact and beset by legal delays.

So far, Labour has failed to address whether it would seek to overturn planning permission for the project, and has not responded to DeSmogโ€™s requests for clarification.

In contrast, the partyโ€™s parliamentary candidate for the new Workington and Whitehaven constituency, where the mine would be built, has been vocal in his opposition.

Speaking to his local newspaper the News & Star last week, prospective MP Josh MacAlister said the mine was โ€œa risky bet for new jobsโ€. โ€œThe easiest thing in the world would be to tell you the mine will solve our problems โ€“ but it wonโ€™t,โ€ he said.

DeSmog understands that MacAlister has also addressed the issue at a number of local meetings, including to a mining heritage group in Whitehaven. 

According to a source, he told dozens of residents in November that the area was better off without the mine. However, he reportedly stopped short of clarifying whether he would oppose the national party if it backed the schemeโ€™s development.

When approached by DeSmog for comment, MacAlisterโ€™s team referred DeSmog to his views expressed in the News & Star, adding that they were โ€œconsistent with what he has said since being selectedโ€.

A projection released by YouGov on 5 June shows that MacAlister is expected to win the seat in a landslide, with a predicted 53 percent of the vote to the Conservativesโ€™ 25 percent.

Rebecca Willis, professor in energy and climate governance at the University of Lancaster, told DeSmog that โ€œthe mine has huge symbolic importanceโ€ both domestically and in terms of climate diplomacy.

โ€œYou canโ€™t be a leading climate nation and provide consent for new coal mines,โ€ she said. โ€œThose two things are fundamentally incompatible.โ€

โ€˜Non-Committalโ€™

Despite Labourโ€™s silence, MacAlisterโ€™s position appears to align with that of Ed Miliband, the partyโ€™s shadow climate change secretary.

Shortly after the mine was approved, Miliband co-authored an opinion piece for the News & Star with Cumberlandโ€™s council leader Mark Fryer. In the article, they argued that the mine would be โ€œobsolete by the 2030s and 2040s at the latest, because of changes to the global steel industry which is rapidly moving towards clean steel productionโ€.

Miliband reiterated this message at a March 2023 Cumberland Economic Summit event in west Cumbria.

Since then, the national Labour party has revealed little on its position.

Karl Conor, a former Labour councillor for Copeland, told DeSmog that given the controversies surrounding the scheme and the interest of the local community, MacAlister and Labour will be unable โ€œto get through the campaign without having to nail their colours to the mastโ€.

In contrast to MacAlister, prospective Conservative MP Andrew Johnson has strongly backed the mine, telling the News & Star: โ€œIt offers the best prospect in years to create new jobs, attract significant investment into West Cumbria and help to deliver the upgrade to the coastal railway.

โ€œIf elected I will work tireless[ly] to fight for the mine to open and those jobs deliveredโ€.

Claims by West Cumbria Mining that the project will create around 500 jobs have been strongly disputed.

Campaign group South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC) group, which is bringing a legal challenge against the decision to greenlight the scheme, said that โ€œno methodologyโ€ had been provided by the mining firm to support these claims.

A source in the new joint Cumberland authority told DeSmog they thought the local Conservative party would โ€œtry to make it [the local election campaign] about the mineโ€.ย 

โ€œIn the same way they made the Uxbridge by-election all about ULEZ [Londonโ€™s Ultra Low Emission Zone], Sadiq Khanโ€™s flagship policy, the Toriesโ€™ electoral strategy will be to make it about the mine,โ€ they said. โ€œ… If I was in their position, itโ€™s what Iโ€™d be doing.โ€

Compensation Conundrum

Any new administration looking to block the Cumbria coal mine may be hit with a compensation claim that runs into the tens of millions, according to a well-placed legal expert. 

Matthew McFeeley, a lawyer with Richard Buxton Solicitors, has been advising SLACC on its legal challenge. He told DeSmog that much will depend on the judicial review, which is scheduled to be heard on 16 July, less than a fortnight after the general election.

โ€œIf the court were to find that the planning permission had been unlawfully granted, then it would all have to go back to the secretary of state for a new decision,โ€ McFeeley said.

In this scenario, he explained, a Labour administration could argue that the climate and environmental impacts of the project are too great, and refuse to grant permission.  

If campaigners can successfully argue the mine’s planning permission is unlawful, the company behind the coaling scheme โ€“ West Cumbria Mining (WCM) โ€“ would not be able to issue any kind of compensation claim.

However, if the next government decided to revoke planning permission without a legal ruling, the taxpayer would be legally obliged to pay compensation, McFeeley said. The amount would depend on an assessment of how much WCM stood to lose from the permission being revoked.

The legal challenge is one of a number of hurdles WCM has to jump over before it can begin work at the site. McFeeley also indicated that the compensation claim could run into the tens of millions, or higher.  โ€œTheyโ€™re investing their money at risk at this point,โ€ he said.

WCM vacated its offices in west Cumbria on the eve of the 2021 public inquiry after the Singapore-based EMR Capital, one of the mineโ€™s major financial backers, oversaw a โ€œcost-savingโ€ programme. The company has until the end of 2025 to get shovels in the ground.

Other hurdles also stand in the way of the mineโ€™s construction โ€“ including approval of marine licences, habitat monitoring and a risk assessment.

Despite the many issues associated with the mine, Professor Willis, of the University of Lancaster, said that scrapping the plans may still prove awkward for an incoming government.

โ€œThereโ€™s a timing issue for Labour here,โ€ she said. โ€œTheyโ€™ve promised a lot in terms of green industrial policy through Great British Energy [Labourโ€™s proposed state-owned energy company] and publicly-backed investment in green industries. But that will take a while to get going.

โ€œSo, at least over the next year, youโ€™ll have the situation where theyโ€™ll be saying no to the mine but theyโ€™re not saying yes to anything else in the area. Thatโ€™s quite difficult politically.

โ€œUntil the community actually sees a physical project with attached jobs being offered to them, theyโ€™re going to be pretty cynical about it.โ€

West Cumbria Mining did not respond to DeSmogโ€™s request for comment.

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