Miliband and Mandelson battle for top staff to back rival green agendas

• 'Clash of generations' over pro-industry policy bias • Credit crunch pits jobs against climate change
David Hencke, Westminster correspondent
The Guardian, Wednesday 14 January 2009

Lord Mandelson and Ed Miliband, two of the biggest beasts in Gordon Brown's cabinet, are locked in a battle over the staffing of their ministries which has led to "blood on the carpet" in Whitehall.
The battle between Miliband, a member of Brown's kitchen cabinet, and Peter Mandelson, the returning outsider who is now one of the most influential voices in the prime minister's inner circle, could have consequences beyond the pressing dispute about the new Department of Energy and Climate Change. One MP has characterised the differences between the two men as a "clash of the generations".
Miliband, who leads the new ministry, is seeking to poach more of Mandelson's senior civil servants to strengthen his department's handling of economic and infrastructure issues to back up his agenda.
Mandelson, the business and enterprise secretary, is refusing to give ground, insisting his department is "over-committed" in handling the impact of the credit crunch on business and jobs.
The Treasury insisted that the ministry, set up last autumn and seen as giving Miliband his big break, should receive no pump-priming cash because of the need for tough public spending controls.
Brown is said to have overruled the Treasury and Cabinet Office to set up the ministry in the first place.
The two men are cooperating on a green jobs package due this month. But there are tensions between the younger Miliband and the older operator Mandelson over the emphasis of the climate change and energy briefs.
Miliband is determined to move away from the pro-industry bias of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) towards a greener agenda. One recent example was his inclusion of shipping and aviation emissions in plans to curb Britain's carbon footprint. This key demand of environmental campaigners, unpopular with airlines, would have been unlikely to have been put forward by the business department.
The new ministry took 480 civil servants from the climate change group at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and 420 from the energy division of DBERR. Miliband wants more senior civil servants from the business department to back up his team.
Officials have failed to resolve the row. Meetings as recently as last Wednesday have broken up without any progress. One Whitehall source described a tense atmosphere between the two departments, with "blood on the carpet", as neither will give way.
A senior source said: "The general view in Whitehall was that there weren't the resources to set up this new ministry in the first place. But this was overriden and now the department is in difficulties in getting enough staff."
Now Miliband and Mandelson will try to resolve the row, although the Treasury will make the final decision. It is likely to be more sympathetic to Mandelson, who can argue that his brief has expanded since the credit crunch began.
This is a dispute one man will lose. Which one it is will say a lot about the cabinet's attitude to the environment, the government's new approach in Whitehall, and which is the biggest beast.
Big beasts
Ed MilibandAge: 39Past resignations: noneClose allies: Gordon Brown, Ed Balls and Yvette CooperChief rival: David Miliband
Peter MandelsonAge: 55Past resignations: twoClose allies: Tony Blair, Gordon Brown (renewed friendship) and Tessa JowellChief rival: Ed Balls