A LABOUR shadow cabinet member has described plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria as "disastrous", and hit out at the Local Government Secretary's decision not to intervene on the decision-making over its future.

Naz Shah, the Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion and MP for Bradford West, levelled criticism at Conservative Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick on Monday for what she described as an "extraordinary decision" not to make an intervention in the decision-making process on whether or not proposals for the Whitehaven coking coal mine should go ahead.

While the decision to approve or reject the plans for the mine nominally lie with Cumbria County Council, as Local Government Secretary, Mr Jenrick has the authority to "call-in" planning applications, adopting the responsibility to give the go-ahead or to reject the most contentious or significant planning proposals.

However, last week the Secretary of State confirmed he would not intervene, leaving the final decision in the hands of the council.

In an exchange in the House of Commons on Monday, Ms Shah asked Mr Jenrick if he would "now commit to block this disastrous application".

"If he will not, will he tell the House how he expects anyone to take the Government seriously ever again on tackling climate change?" she said.

"In the year the UK is hosting COP26, we need to show an example to the rest of the world."

"The application is of national, even global, importance and demands his intervention."

Mr Jenrick said he could not comment on an individual application, other than to say "a decision not to call in an application is not a decision on the merits of a particular case".

"It is a decision on whether it meets the bar to bring in a case and have it heard on a national scale, or whether, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, it is better left to local democratically elected councillors, in this case in Cumbria," he said, adding that it is up to them to balance the "national presumption against new coal" with any benefits the mine may bring, "in terms of jobs, skills and economic benefit".

Those critical of the plans for the new mine, which if built will bring about 500 jobs to the area, maintain that its construction would be a significant retrograde step in the global efforts to fight climate change.

Proponents of the mine highlight the benefits to west Cumbria that would be brought by the jobs it creates.

Copeland mayor Mike Starkie said last week that the mine is set to play a "significant role" in the economic recovery of the area, in what is a "extremely challenging time".

Those against the mine argue that an abundance of jobs can be created with further investment into green industry.

The proposed mine will not be extracting coal for electricity production; it will instead be extracting cocking coal, if it is indeed built.

Coking coal is used in the production of steel. There are alternative methods that do not rely on coking coal, however it will be several years before these are able to be deployed at an industrial scale.

Swedish company SSAB is aiming to be the first in the world to bring fossil-free steel to the market, in 2026.

It states that the steel industry globally generates seven per cent of the planet's total greenhouse gas emissions.

Last week, Swedish teenager and internationally-renowned climate campaigner Greta Thunberg brought wider attention to the issue of the proposed west Cumbrian mine, stating that the Government's decision not to intervene in the decision-making process indicated that its target of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 meant "basically nothing".