KEMI BADENOCH: We MUST get our oil and gas out of the ground

Deep under the North Sea, in sites controlled by Britain, are around 3 billion barrels of oil and gas – about £165 billion-worth.

And yet, out of pure ideology, Labour are insisting it remains there even while other countries drill.

This is economic insanity. I spent Monday on an oil rig talking to newly-trained Scottish workers. They told me that in the past year, many of their friends have been taking jobs in America, the Gulf and Scandinavia. ‘No one is investing here and I don’t know why,’ one said.

But I know why: it’s because of Ed Miliband. Every day brings another reminder of the lunacy of the Labour Party’s ongoing ban on new oil and gas licences, spearheaded by its dogmatic Energy Secretary.

Increasingly, a chorus of voices – by no means only from the fossil-fuel industry – have been urging the Government to reconsider.

Tony Blair’s think-tank has called for this ban to be overturned. So has the Labour-supporting GMB Union. The head of RenewableUK, the trade association for wind, wave and tidal power, wants to see drilling continued in the North Sea, as do energy company bosses like Greg Jackson of Octopus.

Even Rachel Reeves is said to be keen to get her hands on the revenue that would flow in from our oil and gas fields – even if she probably hopes she could spend it on yet more welfare handouts.

Labour’s oil and gas policy is not just destroying jobs north of the border – it’s killing industry across the UK. Heritage brand Denby Pottery has just gone into administration. Our chemical industry is 60 per cent smaller than it was in 2021. Heavy industry is suffering.

On Thursday, I was on an industrial estate in Redcar, North Yorkshire, speaking to staff from the US giant Huntsman, who believe Britain is in the last-chance saloon if it wants to maintain heavy industry. Standing amid the hollowed-out shells of the old factories that once powered the North East, I could almost see our country deindustrialising before our eyes.

It’s time to stop.

Last week Keir Starmer stood at PMQs looking as timid and helpless as ever. He told Parliament he couldn’t do anything about new drilling licences because it was all up to Ed Miliband. As I told him to his face, this was pathetic.

If Starmer had a backbone and he was determined to tackle the cost of living and bring down bills for British families and businesses, he would have sacked Miliband long ago.

Yesterday it emerged that the Government might make a partial and belated U-turn on drilling the Jackdaw field 250 miles east of Aberdeen, thanks to the campaign the Conservatives have led. But there is still no clarity on what Miliband might approve or when. Once again Starmer is being pulled helplessly along for the ride while the real leader of the Labour Party makes the decisions that matter.

Yes, people have concerns about climate change but in this more dangerous world we need to get Britain drilling.

It’s good for our financial security, our energy security and above all our national security. Under my leadership, the Conservatives have published a draft Bill that would deal with the planning problems and the ‘lawfare’ that have previously stopped drilling in the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields.

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We have committed, too, to scrapping the Energy Profits Levy [a temporary 38 per cent tax on UK oil and gas company profits] to make the offshore industry viable. We have said we will change the mandate of the North Sea Transition Authority, which regulates oil and gas activity in Britain, to just one task – getting as much of the stuff out of the North Sea as possible.

And here’s the point. The revenue from North Sea drilling would allow us, as a government, to support British families. Our new Cheap Power Plan would save a typical household £200 and Labour could adopt it tomorrow if they were brave enough – rather than lavishing another bailout on people on benefits, they could lower the costs of everyone’s bills.

Our plan would cut VAT from energy bills and scrap Miliband’s green taxes, immediately helping families with the cost of living. By removing the Carbon Tax on industry, we would protect British jobs and manufacturing. And we would help ensure we don’t lose more refineries here in the UK: in the past year alone, we have lost a third of our refining capacity.

To get Britain working, we need to cut spending, slash tax and back business. Time and again, Starmer has U-turned under pressure. I won’t stop pushing until he sees the light, overrules Ed Miliband and does what everyone knows is right – getting our oil and gas out the ground. Fuel Britannia!