Labour civil war erupts over £100bn mega project near seaside towns | Politics | News

Sir Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband have been embroiled in a “massive row” over a proposed £100bn data center on one of Europe’s largest brownfield sites. Amazon, Microsoft and Google are in talks to invest in Teesworks, a 4,500-acre site between Redcar and Hartlepool on a former steelmaking site in the north-east.

The land is planned to be turned into a data centre, which will power the UK version of ChatGPT and help save money in the NHS and defense sector. However, the mega project, which will be four times the size of America’s largest project, has reportedly caused internal squabbles among senior members of the Labor Party. Tees Valley Mayor Lord Houchen claimed there was a “power struggle” between the prime minister and the energy minister.

Speaking at a Conservative Party conference event earlier this week, he accused Sir Keir of “failing to control” some Cabinet members.

Lourd Houchen revealed the Teesworks plans were left to Mr Miliband, who “opposed” various senior ministers.

He said: “It’s sitting on Ed Miliband’s desk at the moment and I’m acutely aware that there’s a big fight going on within the Government with Ed Miliband pitted against not just the Prime Minister but also a number of foreign ministers.

“This led to the decision being delayed because the prime minister and his team, for whatever reason, did not feel they could tell Ed Miliband what to do.”

This came after BP’s plans for the same land were cancelled. The energy company wanted to set up a blue hydrogen project called H2Teesside, which had Mr Miliband’s backing.

The net zero advocate was due to make a development consent order (DCO) decision for the project in August but has postponed the deadline.

Lord Houchen explained that H2Teesside is “looking very shaky at the moment” as BP is “going back to the drawing board and redesigning everything”.

He said: “I can safely say that the majority of the government would prefer the AI ​​project to go ahead and would not want the BP DCO to be granted.”