Major union attacks Labour plan to ban North Sea oil and gas licences

One of Labour’s biggest union backers urges Keir Starmer to rethink party’s ‘self-defeating’ plan to ban all new North Sea oil and gas drilling

• Gary Smith, general secretary of GMB, warns against ‘strangling’ the industry 

One of Labour’s biggest union backers has urged Sir Keir Starmer to rethink his ‘self-defeating’ plan to block all new North Sea oil and gas developments.

Gary Smith, general secretary of GMB, warned against ‘strangling’ the industry and stressed there was a ‘national security imperative’ to keep producing fossil fuels in Britain.

He vowed to ‘face down’ proposals to ban new North Sea oil and gas drilling ahead of Labour setting out its general election manifesto.

The union leader’s intervention comes ahead of Sir Keir’s expected announcement of Labour‘s net zero plans in the coming weeks.

He is set to use a speech in Scotland next month to outline his latest ‘national mission’ for a Labour administration.

Gary Smith, general secretary of GMB, warned against ‘strangling’ the industry and stressed there was a ‘national security imperative’ to keep producing fossil fuels in Britain

The union leader’s intervention comes ahead of Sir Keir Starmer’s expected announcement of Labour ‘s net zero plans in the coming weeks

The Labour leader’s proposals will reportedly include a pledge to ban all new North Sea oil and gas licences in a major break with current Government policy

The proposals will reportedly include a pledge to ban all new North Sea oil and gas licences in a major break with current Government policy.

Sir Keir is also expected to announce that a Labour government would only borrow to invest in green enterprises and promise to double onshore wind, triple solar and more than quadruple offshore wind power.

But critics have claimed Labour’s plans will leave Britain more reliant on foreign energy imports from Middle Eastern states or even Russia.

Mr Smith fired a warning shot that his union would oppose Labour heading into the general election with a promise to ban all new North Sea oil and gas licences.

GMB are among Labour’s biggest funders and helped to bankroll the party’s election campaign in 2019.

‘It would be self-defeating not to maximise extraction from our own oil and gas, and that’s going to be a difficult debate but it’s one we’ll have to face down,’ Mr Smith told the Financial Times.

‘There’s ethics involved; are we going to keep funding these regimes in the Middle East and the likes of Russia, or do we take responsibility for our own carbon and create jobs and investment here?’

Mr Smith said there was ‘no point strangling’ Britain’s oil and gas industry, adding: ‘We need to work with the industry to encourage investment in the green technologies of the future.’

But the GMB general secretary suggested Sir Keir’s team were ‘in the mood to listen’ to his union’s stance.

‘The Labour party understands that there is a national security imperative around this as well,’ he added.

‘Our biggest challenge is going to be how we keep the lights on and keep homes heated and industry powered over the next decade, we are one pipeline or one cable going down away from a serious energy crisis.’

Since becoming Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has pledged his ‘wholehearted support’ to the UK’s oil and gas industry and stressed Britain will need to ‘rely’ on fossil fuels for decades to come.

He has insisted it ‘makes sense’ to utilise sources in the UK rather than rely on imports as the country transitions away from hydrocarbons.

The Government last year opened up a new licensing round to allow oil and gas companies to explore for fossil fuels in the North Sea.

Tories yesterday lined up to attack any move to ban new North Sea oil and gas developments.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, told MailOnline: ‘It is green hypocrisy of a high order.

‘We will still need the oil and gas but will import it which means higher emissions because of transport and the energy required to liquify and then regasify Liquefied Natural Gas.’

Fellow Tory backbencher Craig MacKinlay, who leads Net Zero Scrutiny Group of Conservative MPs, said: ‘Whilst I have been widely condemning our own flawed energy policy, Labour’s plans to block any new North Sea oil and gas is incoherent. 

‘All the while there remains no practical or affordable plan for storage of the fantasy amounts of surplus electricity that bulked up renewables may produce, gas remains the flexible backbone of electricity generation and home heating, with oil the mainstay of motive power and industrial processes.

‘More UK produced oil and gas has advantages in ensuring reliable domestic supply bringing investment, jobs and tax revenues and is hugely positive to the country’s perpetually poor balance of payments record.

‘Labour’s plans to import more will simply enrich foreign treasuries and increase CO2 output such is the flawed model of international LNG shipments.

‘When politicians follow flawed ideology the result is usually 180 degrees away from what common sense would dictate. These plans are truly dangerous.’

Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth yesterday pushed back against claims that stopping new North Sea oil and gas developments would increase the UK’s dependence on energy from countries such as Qatar or even Russia.

‘What we’ll be doing in the coming weeks is outlining how we want to invest in the green jobs of the future to bring bills down, to create a more sustainable energy supply,’ he told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday show.

‘We’ll be announcing that in a significant mission in the coming weeks and we’ll be announcing more details then.

‘We know we’ve got to move towards more renewable sources of energy – it’s important for our climate change commitments.

‘But it’s also a way in which we can bring energy bills down for consumers.’

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