𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

It comes amid mounting fears over soaring prices as the conflict in Iran is disrupting key oil and shipping lanes. US President Mr Trump has urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to “open up the North Sea” amid the Middle East crisis.

And over the weekend, Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Courtinho hit out at Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s “simply mad” net zero strategy.

She told GB News: “The world has got more dangerous. At the moment, we’re importing more from abroad, rather than using our own resources at a time of global conflict. That’s simply mad.”

Unite, which represents thousands of oil and gas workers, last week called on the government to stop blocking oil and gas production in the North Sea.

The union’s general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The Government’s position on oil and gas is putting jobs and national security at risk.

“Blocking oil and gas production in the North Sea, especially now is simply an act of monumental political self-harm.”

But the Energy Secretary has defended the Government’s policy not to allow new North Sea exploration licences and insisted they would not make any difference to energy bills.

Mr Miliband told the Commons earlier this month: “On the North Sea, I think she said it’s an incredibly important resource, which is exactly what I said in my statement, and indeed we listened to the industry and took a pragmatic approach on tiebacks to existing fields, welcomed by the industry, to keep our manifesto commitment of keeping existing oil and gas fields open for their lifetime.”

He added: “New exploration licences particularly in the light of tiebacks will make no difference to production, and here’s the really important thing about this, it’s on average 10 years from exploration to production.”