This is a joint opinion piece from Ed Miliband, the MP for Doncaster North and the Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero and Mark Fryer, the Labour leader of the new Cumberland Council from April 2023.

People feel in their bones that our economy has to change after twelve long years of Conservative rule, and that the only way to do that is with proper jobs, paid at good wages and backed by trade unions standing up for workers’ rights.

The people of Cumbria - like communities right across our country - are fed up with low paid, insecure work which doesn’t provide enough for people to feed their family and live a good life.

Coal mining used to provide this for communities across the country, from the Cumbrian coast to the pit villages of Doncaster.

Mining is seared into the history not just of our land but our national story, as too are the miners who heroically powered our country, and at the same time earned a good living, often risking their lives for our country.

As well as putting money in people’s pockets, mining also built strong communities.

We are deeply proud of that tradition, and we honour those who sacrificed so much to build it.

Thirty years ago the whole labour movement came together to fight for those good jobs in our communities, cruelly swept away by the Tories.

The great challenge of our time is to build the industries with good jobs that will power Britain’s future, just as coal powered our past.

But whilst it is tempting to conclude that the best way to do this is to go back to coal itself, this is not the answer.

The proposed mine in Cumbria, if it is ever built, would be obsolete by the 2030s and 2040s at the latest, because of changes to the global steel industry which is rapidly moving towards clean steel production.

Rather than providing generations of sustainable jobs, the mine would not offer a stable source of jobs and would suck in time and resources to a project that won’t be around for long enough to change the economic landscape of the region.

Instead of looking to the past, we should embrace the future - and that means taking advantage of the huge opportunities there are in the green economy.

Numerous studies have shown what the Cumbria energy coast can offer - opportunities in offshore wind, green hydrogen, nuclear, tidal, home energy insulation.

These are the industries of the future, and just like we did with coal, we can lead the world in their development and workers from Cumbria can be at the forefront of it.

These jobs have a double benefit over the mine.

Not only will they be around for many more years, but also they contribute to the challenge of protecting our home from the existential threat of climate change.

This mine alone is the equivalent of putting 2 million cars on the road every year. Doing so would be a betrayal of current and future generations, to whom we cannot leave a legacy of dirty air, rising emissions, and the threat of floods and disruption.

You might be asking, if these green jobs are so good, why hasn’t this happened already?

The answer is because we have a Conservative government that just doesn’t get it.

They make grand promises but let people down. They make promises of levelling up and don’t deliver. They would rather peddle false solutions than invest the resources to make real ones happen.

Having talked at length about the opportunities in Cumbria, we intend to work together - local authority and a future Labour government to turn that vision into a reality.

We will establish Great British Energy, a new publicly-owned energy generation company, to ensure the green economy of the future is delivered in Cumbria and across Britain.

It will invest in the new opportunities that are so plentiful, including to help create the jobs Cumbria so desperately needs. A new National Wealth Fund will partner with the private sector to back up the investment.

So how can people in Cumbria believe it will happen? Because over the coming months you will see the Labour Party on your doorstep, in our community, talking about how we can build the green jobs of the future in Cumbria.

People in Cumbria have been let down for too long by successive governments.

We know our responsibility to work with business and the community to deliver where they have failed.

OTHER VIEWS: Politicians have their say on controversial approval of first UK coalmine in 30 years