𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Energy Security Secretary Ed Miliband is accused of squandering the “treasure beneath our feet” and destroying jobs at a time of war and surging energy costs by opposing new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. Labour has been warned the country faces an “economic and security emergency” and has been urged to go for “maximum extraction” and prevent the collapse of a once-proud North Sea industry. Mr Miliband has been told oil rig engineers do not want to retrain as “low-paid wind tower barnacle scrubbers”. The Government is refusing to U-turn, insisting a new era of exploration in the North Sea will not “take a penny off bills”.

Richard Brooks, who leads the Scottish Conservative and Unionist group on Aberdeen City Council, sent up a warning flare.

He said: “We have the expertise, the resources, and the appetite in Aberdeen and the north east of Scotland to maximise extraction from the North Sea and thus minimise and even eradicate the need to import energy.”

Mr Brooks warned that “Aberdeen’s reputation as the energy capital of Europe is in tatters under both the SNP and Labour governments’ presumption against oil and gas”.

The push for a new approach to meeting Britain’s energy needs at a time when Iran is striking vessels in the Strait of Hormuz comes from across the political spectrum.

A Labour MP, speaking anonymously, said Mr Miliband “should not be in Government,” adding: “I do think his department should be abolished and we should drill every last drip out of the North Sea.”

Gary Smith, the general secretary of the GMB trade union, insists it is “absolutely vital” Britain has a secure domestic oil and gas supply. Sharon Graham, boss of the Unite trade union, described Labour “blocking oil and gas production” as “monumental political self-harm”.

Reform UK’s Richard Tice said a “net zero obsession” resulted in the country leaving a “vast oil and gas treasure in the North Sea untouched while families pay more”.

Enrique Cornejo of industry body Offshore Energies UK insisted the “sensible” option is for Britain to have “homegrown oil and gas alongside renewables”.

He said: “The North Sea meets about half our needs and can keep doing so if we back the sector. If we do not, we import more, pay higher prices, lose skilled jobs, and send emissions elsewhere.”

Iain Mansfield of Policy Exchange urged a similar approach, saying: “We should be investing more in all domestic energy sources: Nuclear, renewable and in the North Sea. This is about energy security: Gas will be required for decades to come, and the current crisis shows the folly of deliberately increasing our dependence on foreign sources.”

Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride pushed for “maximum extraction in the North Sea to secure Britain’s energy security and shore up our finances”.

Describing the North Sea resources as a “critical pillar of national resilience”, he said: “This is an economic and security emergency. Net zero dogma is weakening our economy and our national security.”

Sir Mel added: “We are also wasting the economic opportunities of jobs and growth in our North Sea industry. The tax revenues from that could help to strengthen our national security by giving defence spending the boost that it needs.”

His concerns were echoed by leading think tanks.

Andy Mayer, an energy analyst at the Institute of Economic Affairs, described the nation’s oil and gas reserves as “the treasure beneath our feet”.

He said it is “entirely foolish to leave it in the ground” and accused the Government of “spitefully putting smug virtue-signalling” ahead of the “national interest” and the “livelihoods of the workers of Aberdeen”.

Mr Mayer warned that abandoning extraction “won’t create new ‘green jobs’” – and he said that “rig engineers mostly don’t want to retrain as low-paid wind tower barnacle scrubbers”.

Sean Ridley, an energy expert at the Centre for Policy Studies, cautioned that the “war in Iran threatens another energy price spike at the worst possible moment’.

And James Graham of the Prosperity Institute urged Labour to “choose economic security over green dogma”.

He said: [We] need gas and oil to keep the lights on. Britain is blessed with vast reserves of oil and gas. However, our leaders have made us dependent on international imports. Net zero makes us insecure and dependent on global supply chains.”

However, a spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero gave no hint that the Government is considering a new approach, stating: “Issuing new licences to explore new fields cannot give us energy security and will not take a penny off bills. Regardless of where it comes from, oil and gas is sold on international markets, which set the price for British billpayers – making us a price-taker.

“The route to energy sovereignty, lower bills and thousands of good jobs in our communities is clean, homegrown power we control.”