Badenoch warns of ‘oil and gas emergency’ in call for new drilling

The UK is facing a “growing oil and gas emergency”, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch declared as her party launched a campaign aimed at getting Britain “drilling again”.

She said action is needed because of “Labour’s inability to put our national interest first”, claiming UK Government policies could put the future of the country’s oil and gas sector “at serious risk”.

She challenged the Prime Minister to “find the backbone to ditch Ed Miliband’s net zero fanaticism”, claiming this is hiking energy bills.

Mrs Badenoch demanded the UK Government ends the moratorium on new oil and gas licences, and called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to scrap the Energy Profits Levy – also known as the windfall tax – in her Budget later this month.

The tax on the profits of oil and gas producers was increased to 38% last year.

In a joint letter to Ms Reeves and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband on Tuesday, trade bodies Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) and Scottish Renewables both said it must be urgently replaced.

Mrs Badenoch had planned to travel to the north east of Scotland – where much of the UK’s oil and gas sector is based – on Wednesday to launch her party’s new campaign on the issue, but her plans were hampered because of fog.

She said: “Enough is enough. Keir Starmer must find the backbone to ditch Ed Miliband’s net zero fanaticism, which is forcing up bills and driving away industry.

“Instead, the Prime Minister should do what our economy needs, scrap the Energy Profits Levy and end the moratorium on new licences in the North Sea.

“If the Labour Government fails to act, we could be witness to the end of our domestic energy security as we know it.”

The Tory leader said gas will continue to play a key role in meeting the UK’s energy supply needs, claiming it can lower costs and increase energy security.

However she said at present “Scotland, and the whole United Kingdom, faces a growing oil and gas emergency thanks to Labour’s inability to put our national interest first”.

Mrs Badenoch added: “By the end of Labour’s first term in office, it’s not inconceivable that Scotland’s oil and gas sector will be at serious risk, with domestic production currently set to half by 2030.

“That would be a shocking indictment of Labour’s energy policy, and a dangerous act of economic self-sabotage.”

Andrew Bowie, the MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine and the shadow Scottish secretary, claimed opposition to oil and gas means “Labour and the SNP are putting the economic livelihood of Scotland, and the economic security of the UK, in serious danger”.

Mr Bowie told the PA news agency on Wednesday: “We’re seeing companies closing, people leaving the country to find work elsewhere.

“It’s quite clear our energy security is being undermined. For all those reasons, we’re declaring an emergency in our oil and gas sector.”

Asked if he is going against the science on climate change, he said: “We’re not even questioning the existence of climate change.

“We’re not climate change sceptics, we’re net zero sceptics.”

A Labour Party spokesperson accused Mrs Badenoch of “doubling down on the same failed Tory energy policy that caused the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation”.

They said: “The Conservatives’ anti-growth, anti-jobs, anti-investment position on clean energy would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, leave Britain reliant on insecure expensive fossil fuels, and lock families into higher bills for generations to come.

“It’s the same old Tories, with the same old policies. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now.”

The Tory leader also came under fire from environmental campaigners, who accused her of adopting US President Donald Trump’s “drill baby drill” approach.

Rosie Hampton, oil and gas campaigns manager at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “This is a pathetic and desperate attempt to appeal to Trump and oil industry lobbyists, because nobody else considers it a credible plan.

“The ‘drill baby drill’ approach to fossil fuels being pushed by Trump and his imitators will kill people by worsening climate breakdown.”

Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, which is seeking a “rapid and fair transition” away from oil and gas in the UK, said: “This is desperate stuff from Kemi Badenoch.

“The idea that, after 50 years of drilling, the ageing North Sea can provide us with reliable and, crucially, affordable energy supply is for the birds.

“The UK has burned most of its gas – that’s a matter of geology not policy – and what oil there is, is owned by oil and gas firms who then export most of it.

“New drilling won’t take a penny off our bills, and will do next to nothing to boost UK supply.”