Starmer: It’s up to Miliband whether we drill in North Sea
Sir Keir Starmer has said it is Ed Miliband’s decision whether Britain drills for oil and gas in the North Sea.
The Prime Minister claimed he had no power to approve more licences and insisted that the final call lay with the Energy Secretary.
Labour is under mounting pressure – including from Donald Trump – to approve new extraction at Rosebank and Jackdaw, two fossil fuel sites in the North Sea, after the Iran war caused energy costs to spiral.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservatives, said that Sir Keir could make the decision to drill today and accused him of “hiding behind” Mr Miliband.
Critics have already claimed that Mr Miliband wields too much power over the Prime Minister after he successfully led opposition to the UK allowing the US to strike Iran from British bases.
Despite the energy crisis, Mr Miliband has reiterated his vocal opposition to North Sea drilling, arguing repeatedly that it would not bring down prices.
When Mrs Badenoch challenged Sir Keir to approve the licences, the Prime Minister insisted that current laws prevented him from overruling the Energy Secretary.
Sir Keir suggested any move by Mr Miliband to drill would be a legal decision rather than political, saying: “It’s absolutely clear that the quasi-judicial duty of the legislation rests with the Secretary of State.”
He added: “The only way forward is to go further and faster on renewables and the leader of the Opposition’s approach is to outsource our foreign policy and let the US decide whether we go to war, to outsource our energy policy to Russia and Iran and let them set the price of energy. I will never do that, because it’s not in the British national interest.”
‘Is the Energy Secretary running the Government?’
Mrs Badenoch had questioned whether it was Sir Keir or Mr Miliband, who has been touted as a potential leadership contender, who was really in charge.
The Tory leader said: “The Jackdaw gas field could be up and running before winter. All that gas would be used here in the UK to heat 1.6 million homes – that is enough to power Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex put together.
“So will the Prime Minister approve the licences or is the Energy Secretary running the Government?”
Mrs Badenoch added: “He is hiding behind so many people. He is the Prime Minister, he can make the decision today, he can. He is so weak, he’s the first person to be pushed around by the Energy Secretary.”
She later shared an image of Sir Keir with his head in his hands shortly after PMQs with the caption: “TFW [that feeling when] Ed Miliband is running the Government.”
Licences for both Rosebank and Jackdaw were granted by the previous Tory government and accepted by Labour when it came to power.
However, the projects have been in legal limbo since January last year after a Scottish court ruled that no oil or gas could be extracted at the sites until more information on the environmental impacts had been gathered.
Both sites would require new licences, the court ruled. Mr Miliband has ruled out granting any new licences for the North Sea.
The US president has repeatedly told Sir Keir to open up the North Sea, with Mr Trump describing it as a “treasure chest” and warning earlier this month that the UK’s energy prices were “through the roof”.
The Tories have accused Mr Miliband of having “cult-like conviction” about net zero and claimed his “anti-North Sea fanaticism is making Britain weaker and poorer”.
Writing for The Telegraph on Monday, Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, said it would be “lunacy” not to fast-track drilling at Rosebank and Jackdaw as the Iran war sent energy bills soaring. Last week, RenewableUK, the UK’s wind farm trade body, urged Mr Miliband to “take energy out of the culture wars” by increasing North Sea production.
Mr Miliband has also been criticised by Labour-backing unions because they fear the effect of the demise of North Sea oil and gas on jobs.
More than 200,000 jobs directly and indirectly depend on drilling there. It is understood that Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, is among those in the Cabinet who are pushing for North Sea assets to be unlocked.
However, the Energy Secretary will risk the wrath of Labour backbenchers and climate campaigners if he waves extraction through.
Mr Miliband previously claimed that “new exploration licences in the North Sea, which some people are calling for, will not take a penny off people’s bills”.
[Source: Daily Telegraph]
