Conflict, compromise and the rise of the 'Milibenn' tendency

Allegra Stratton, political correspondent
The Guardian, Friday 16 January 2009

Environmental concessions were wrung out of the prime minister after a five-day battle culminating in a late-night deal in which the climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, demanded a halving of the number of flights BAA wanted to allow on Heathrow's third runway.
Rebel backbenchers yesterday remained opposed to the package, but acknowledged the concessions. Miliband had said he would allow nothing more than the "half a runway" option.
More than 50 MPs are opposed to an expanded Heathrow and the opposition requires only 32 rebels for the government to be defeated should it come to a vote.
Although ministers say they will call a vote, the Liberal Democrats said yesterday that they planned to table a 10-minute rule bill by the end of the month on the government's planning bill, forcing a vote on all airport expansion.
An expected Conservative plan to table the issue as an opposition day debate failed to materialise.
Yesterday, ministerial sources were cautious, aware of possible votes and gloomy about the reception of the plans among climate change campaigners.
Yesterday's deal was reported to have only fallen into place in the last five days.
A source told the Guardian that Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, had achieved concessions on air and noise pollution levels towards the end of last week, but Miliband's concerns were unresolved until overnight on Tuesday. Miliband believed the "unconstrained" expansion of Heathrow rendered impossible the government's promised 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. An aide said: "Ed's position was 'I need the following to support the decision - it can only be half a runway and the other half can only come with constraints.' "
The transport secretary, Geoff Hoon, was said to have made repeated but insufficient concessions. Miliband's meetings with him were described as "frequently bruising, with occasional anger", allegedly due to Hoon's belief that climate change was "a load of tree-hugging hoolah".
Miliband was also tested by the support for an expansion of Heathrow by an old ally, the children's minister, Ed Balls.
Miliband was supported in his position at Tuesday's cabinet by the leader of the House of Lords, Lady Royall; the skills secretary, John Denham; the leader of the Commons, Harriet Harman; and Benn. The international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, and the foreign secretary, David Miliband, were away on foreign visits, but voiced their support. According to one adviser: "When Ed decided he had enough, they all came in behind him."
Miliband is said to have voiced his opposition when he was appointed climate change secretary.
Soon after the delay to the decision was announced by Hoon last Christmas, the Miliband and Benn camps both contacted the Institute for Public Policy Research, over a pamphlet by Simon Retallack, the IPPR's head of climate change, arguing that the third runway should not go ahead unless the government required aircraft using it to meet the aviation industry's own targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions and noise in new aircraft by 50% and nitrogen oxides by 80% by 2020.
Yesterday government whips rang round to find out how MPs intended to vote. Backbenchers opposed to the decision praised the work of Miliband and Benn, and said they might call themselves the the "Milibenn tendency".
Martin Salter, the Labour party's vice-chair for the environment, said: "There aren't enough jumbo jets to drag me into the lobby to vote for the third runway. But you can't doubt that it is radically different from that of 11 November, when he [Hoon] spent time arguing the case of mixed mode and he spoke for 45 minutes before he mentioned climate change."