Speaking at the start of Monday's Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, he said the difficulty of transition to renewable sources of energy - and the ending of jobs in dying fossil fuel sectors - will perplex future governments."Big row, outrage in the Commons, a leak, a split… and then a few days later it's really hard to remember what all the fuss was about.
"He's worried about the impact on oil workers, whom he represents. Sharon Graham, General Secretary of the Unite union, agrees. She says Britain can't have "a repeat of the devastation wrought on workers and their communities by the closure of the coal mines. "Isn't it all just an internal argument in an opposition party - another of those ‘here today, gone tomorrow” stories I was talking about earlier?