Is Ed Miliband for or against a fuel crisis? When fuel tanker drivers last went on strike, in 2000, Tony Blair feared it could cost him his job. He admitted afterwards that the speed with which the dispute escalated had taken him by surprise. The Coalition is not making the same mistake. With the Unite union still more than a week away from its threatened stoppage, contingency planning appears well advanced. The Government's civil contingencies committee has met and military personnel are being trained to deliver fuel. Motorists have been sensibly advised by Downing Street to make sure they have full tanks for the Easter break, prompting accusations of scaremongering. This is one of those instances where the Government is damned if it does, damned if it doesn't. David Cameron will be acutely aware that with the Tory party's poll ratings falling after an unpopular Budget, the prospect of garages running out of petrol is hardly an appealing one. And as George Osborne warned yesterday, the impact on a struggling economy could be devastating. The political risks to the Government if the strike goes ahead are - as Mr Blair will testify - all too real. But perhaps even more vulnerable is Ed Miliband, the Labour leader. For this dispute will throw into sharp relief Labour's unhealthy dependence on Unite. The union keeps Labour afloat financially. Between 2007 - when it was formed through the merger of Amicus and the TGWU - and the 2010 general election, it gave Labour just under £11 million. Nearly half of all Labour MPs are sponsored by Unite. In return it has a big say in the party's policy-making. A former Labour general secretary has said: "It is absolutely fair to describe the Labour Party as the political wing of Unite." This would be unsettling enough were Unite run by reasonable people. It is not. Its general secretary, Len McCluskey, is an extreme Left-winger of the old school. He has made no secret of the fact that he regards industrial action by his members as a political weapon. He said last month that the Olympics were a "legitimate target" for protest against the Coalition's welfare policies. Nowhere can Mr McCluskey use his industrial militancy more effectively than with the tanker drivers. Ninety per cent of these well-paid workers - their £45,000 a year earnings are almost twice the national average - are his members. They have the power to bring the country to a halt. Mr Miliband must do more than urge the parties to sit down and talk. He should tell Unite to call off the strike. If he does not, he will give the damaging impression that, far from having any influence with this militant and disruptive union, he is merely dancing to its tune.