More North Sea drilling will put UK at mercy of fossil fuel markets, ministers say

Ministers have said expanding North Sea drilling would put the UK at further risk from volatile fossil fuel markets, amid calls from the Conservatives and some Labour MPs to breach the manifesto pledge of no new oil and gas licences.The energy minister Michael Shanks said the UK was “learning the right lessons from this conflict so that we’re not exposed to fossil fuels in the same way again, because this isn’t the first time that households across the country have paid the price of our exposure to gas”.The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is expected to set out plans in the Commons on Tuesday for the government to protect people from higher energy bills caused by the US-Iran conflict.The Conservatives plan to use their opposition day debate to argue for scrapping the windfall tax on oil and gas, ending the ban on new oil and gas licences and approving the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields in the North Sea.Both Reeves and the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, have said that weaning the UK off its dependence on fossil fuel markets is a key long-term route to addressing the price shocks that have repeatedly hit the cost of living.Miliband told a parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) meeting on Monday night that there was “one overriding lesson of the crisis: while we are dependent on fossil fuel markets, we are price takers not price makers, and we are exposed”.“From the moment this war began, we have been determined to go further and faster on driving for clean power … We can only get energy sovereignty and national security with homegrown power we control.”Ed Miliband said the UK must be less dependent on fossil fuels. Photograph: Toby Melville/ReutersMiliband said that new licences in the North Sea would not make any difference to prices. “Our opponents now say we should scrap the windfall tax when all this would do is increase energy company profits and deprive us of revenue we can use to help people through this crisis.“It has raised £12bn since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. There can be no better example of who they [Reform and the Tories] stand up for and it’s not the British people.”The Labour MP Henry Tufnell wrote in the Sun on Monday that it was time to change course on North Sea oil and gas. “In the face of further geopolitical turmoil, now is the time to alter our approach to energy to protect families,” he wrote.“Drilling in the North Sea and scrapping carbon taxes on British manufacturing would kickstart economic growth, tackle unemployment and economic inactivity in some of the poorest areas of our country as well as prevent further deindustrialisation.“Offshoring our carbon emissions might give some a sense of moral superiority or perhaps relief from guilt, but the fight against climate change is global.”Climate activists protest against the development of the Rosebank oilfield earlier this month. Photograph: Martin Pope/Getty ImagesLabour MPs at the PLP meeting said there was little support for Tufnell’s position within the party. “He was shot down by others who said it’s a risk to go backwards,” one said.The shadow energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, said: “Turning our backs on domestic gas that could heat millions of homes would be madness in normal times, but it is sheer lunacy in the midst of a gas supply crisis.“We must fast-track Rosebank and Jackdaw and lift the onerous bans and taxes on the North Sea to back Britain’s energy security. Labour MPs have the chance to show they will put the national interest over Ed Miliband’s zealotry.”Reeves is expected to set out plans on Tuesday for a new anti-profiteering framework to clamp down on price gouging, especially from petrol retailers responding to the US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation.Miliband told the PLP meeting on Monday night: “No vested interest, no powerful interest will stand in our way.“If the petrol retailers don’t like it then that’s tough because we are on the side of the British people.”Reeves is expected to announce in the Commons on Tuesday that the Fingleton review, which recommended changes to allow the faster building of nuclear power, will be implemented in legislation this year.She is also expected to announce that the government is exploring allowing indemnities for critical energy security projects when they are legally challenged, which should mean fewer projects are delayed.A government spokesperson said: “We inherited years of failure on nuclear and years of laws that played into the hands of the blockers. We are fixing both.“Through £120bn of public investment – including in Sizewell C and Britain’s first small modular reactors in north Wales – we are building the homegrown energy that will protect working people’s bills for generations to come. That is the right economic plan and one where we back the builders not the blockers.”