Labour civil war erupts over £100bn mega project between UK seaside towns

Sir Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband have become embroiled in "a large fight" over a propsed £100billion data centre on one of Europe's biggest brown field sites. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are all in talks to invest in Teesworks – a 4,500-acre development between Redcar and Hartlepool on a former steelmaking site in the northeast.

The land is set to be transformed into a data centre that would power the British version of ChatGPT and help save money in the NHS and defence sector. However, the mega project that would be four times the size of America's largest has reportedly sparked infighting amongst high-ranking members of the Labour Party. The Tees Valley Mayor, Lord Houchen, claimed that there was a "power struggle" between the prime minister and his energy secretary.

Speaking at an event at the Conservative Party conference earlier this week, he accused Sir Keir of not having a "grip" over some Cabinet members.

Lourd Houchen explained that the Teesworks plans were left with Mr Miliband, who has "set himself up against" various senior ministers.

He said: "It's currently sat on Ed Miliband's desk, and I am acutely aware that there is a large fight inside the Government where Ed Miliband seems to have set himself up against not just the prime minister, but a number of secretaries of state.

"That resulted in the decision being deferred because the prime minister and his team, for whatever reason, didn't feel like they could tell Ed Miliband what to do."

This comes after BP's plans for the same plot of land were reportedly axed. The energy company wanted to set up a blue hydrogen project called H2Teesside, which garnered support from Mr Miliband.

The net zero proponent was due to make the development consent order (DCO) decision for the project in August, but pushed the deadline back.

Lord Houchen revealed that H2Teesside "now looks very shaky" as BP is "going back to the drawing board and redesigning the whole thing".

He said: "I am confident in saying that there are large parts of the Government that would prefer the AI project to go ahead, and do not want the BP DCO to be granted."