ED Miliband’s North Sea policy is now so bonkers that even the green crowd are starting to hum “drill, baby, drill”…
At the very moment war in the Middle East is rattling oil and gas markets, the Energy Secretary is still acting as if Britain can simply wish fossil fuels away.
He cannot. We all know it. The public knows it. Industry knows it. Even the unions know it.
And now even the boss of the UK wind industry knows it too.
Tara Singh, head of RenewableUK, has said Britain would be “stronger, safer and less exposed” if it produced more home-grown energy of every kind.
Quite right.
She also said we will still need fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, making fresh North Sea drilling “entirely sensible”.
She’s the LAST person you would expect to advocate for us drilling along our shores… but she’s on the money.
When the nation’s chief wind lobbyist tells Labour it is “entirely sensible” to keep drilling for oil and gas, you know the government has drifted into a dangerous ideological fog.
The hypocrisy at the heart of Miliband’s net-zero zealotry is staggering.
He strikes moral poses against domestic drilling while being perfectly happy to import oil and liquefied natural gas from halfway across the world.
If you actually care about emissions, this is madness.
Importing fuel from far-flung producers means more shipping, more transport, and a far higher carbon footprint than piping it from our own doorstep.
It is climate vanity dressed up as virtue, and it is the British worker who pays the price.
Leaving Britain at the mercy of foreign regimes
Right now, this isn’t just daft – it’s dangerous.
With the US, Israel, and Iran locked in a cycle of conflict, global energy supply lines are as fragile as a house of cards.
Yet, since last July, Labour has blocked new licenses and slapped a punishing 78% windfall tax on our own producers.
We are effectively telling investors to take their money and their jobs elsewhere, leaving us at the mercy of foreign regimes and volatile chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz.
Britain should be reducing its exposure to these shocks, not increasing it.
Yet that is exactly what Labour’s approach does.
Protecting jobs and the Treasury
Let us be honest about one thing – more North Sea drilling will not magically slash everyone’s energy bills overnight.
The global markets don’t not work like that. But that does not make it unimportant. Far from it.
The revenues generated from producing more of our own oil and gas can still swell the Treasury’s coffers, giving overstretched ministers more room for tax cuts and targeted energy bill support.
And domestic production matters for far more than bills alone.
It supports skilled British jobs, strengthens our energy security, cuts reliance on unstable foreign suppliers and keeps investment and industrial know-how here in the UK.
That is why even Labour’s union backers are uneasy. Unite wants more drilling. The GMB has also sounded the alarm.
They can see what Miliband seems unable or unwilling to grasp – if you kill off North Sea production before the country is ready, you do not create a clean-energy paradise.
You simply destroy good jobs and make Britain more dependent on foreign imports.
A pillar of national strength
It is easy to forget how important all this once was. Not that long ago, Britain was one of the world’s biggest oil producers.
In 1986, Britain was the fifth-biggest crude producer on Earth, ahead of Iran and Iraq.
And North Sea oil revenues made up 6% of all government revenues.
In today’s terms, that is the equivalent of every pound we spend on the armed forces.
This was not some fringe industry. It was a pillar of national strength.
We still have huge value left under our waters too.
A parliamentary report has found Britain is set to miss out on around five billion barrels of oil and gas under Labour’s ban on new drilling.
That is not loose change down the back of the sofa.
By 2035, North Sea gas could meet more than half of Britain’s demand.
Why on earth would we choose to buy that from abroad at a premium instead?
Time to stop the self-harm
Even the sensible voices within the tent are wavering.
Octopus Energy boss Greg Jackson wants us to use what’s available, and Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden admits there is an “understandable debate” about drilling.
That’s political code for – “Miliband’s position doesn’t stack up.”
Britain cannot run on slogans and “His Greenness” needs to realise that hospitals, factories, and homes need real power, not just hot air.
It is time to stop the self-harm. We can build a cleaner future without sabotaging the present. Backing British workers and tapping our own resources isn’t anti-green – it is common sense.
If the wind bosses and the unions can see it, why can’t Ed?
