Top Labour advisers are putting pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to ditch the party’s ban on new North Sea oil and gas drilling.
A handful of senior officials are understood to be quietly urging the PM to consider watering down or scrapping the manifesto pledge altogether to see off the growing threat from Reform UK.
Government sources last night played down the idea, saying the ban was a ‘very long-held manifesto position which we won an election on’.
A spokesman also said ministers ‘stand by’ the manifesto pledge and doubled down on the Government’s target to turn Britain into ‘a clean energy superpower’.
However, Reform is looking to weaponise the issue and become the new party for ‘working people’ in Labour’s traditional heartlands.
Reform leader Nigel Farage used a rally in Durham this week ahead of next month’s local elections to warn that his insurgent party was ‘parking our tanks on the Red Wall lawn’ and that it wants to ‘reindustrialise’ Britain by ditching Net Zero targets and breathing new life into traditional industries such as oil and gas.
This comes amid expectations that Secretary for Net Zero Ed Miliband will again be humiliated by the Prime Minister, who is set to approve the Scottish Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields developments.
Both were given the green light by the previous Tory government but were challenged in the courts by environmental campaigners.
Top Labour advisers are putting pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to ditch the party’s ban on new North Sea oil and gas drilling
In its manifesto, Labour pledged to double onshore wind, triple solar power and quadruple offshore wind by 2030 and bring the target for removing fossil fuels from UK electricity production forward to 2030
They were ruled unlawful by the Court of Session in Edinburgh on the grounds that the Government did not properly consider the environmental impacts.
However, ministers will carry out a new assessment and are expected to approve the developments as early as this summer, despite Mr Miliband describing the Rosebank oil project as ‘climate vandalism’.
Yesterday, The Times writer Patrick Maguire used his column to claim there were ‘tentative conversations’ about whether to ditch the ban on issuing new drilling licences in the North Sea.
While one Government source dismissed the report as ‘unsolicited gossip’, others said they believed it to be accurate but that discussions were not at an advanced stage and was instead ‘just chatter’.
In its manifesto, Labour pledged to double onshore wind, triple solar power and quadruple offshore wind by 2030 and bring the target for removing fossil fuels from UK electricity production forward to 2030.
Union leader for GMB Gary Smith had warned that Labour’s Net Zero targets are ‘bonkers’, will ‘decimate’ working communities and push up bills for the country’s poorest.
He also dismissed Government claims that shifting to renewables will create 650,000 jobs by the end of the decade, saying roles would mostly be created offshore in countries such as China, where Labour’s renewables infrastructure is largely built.
Union leader for GMB Gary Smith (pictured) had warned that Labour’s Net Zero targets are ‘bonkers’, will ‘ decimate’ working communities and push up bills for the country’s poorest
In his pitch to voters, Mr Farage also said: ‘[Miliband] is determined to cover our agricultural land in Chinese, slave labour-made [wind] farms, solar farms, and to despoil as much of our coastline as he possibly can.’
His party is projected to win hundreds of council seats, meaning pressure will grow on Sir Keir for a Net Zero U-turn.
A Government spokesman said: ‘We stand by our manifesto commitment to manage existing fields for the duration of their lifespan and ensure a phased and responsible transition in the North Sea that will protect jobs and investment in the long-term.’
