Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has vowed to maximise extraction of oil and gas in the North Sea if her party wins power, calling the current shift away from fossil fuels 'absurd'. In a forthcoming speech in Aberdeen, Badenoch will outline plans to overhaul the North Sea Transition Authority, dropping the word 'transition' and replacing its mandate with a simple order to extract the maximum possible amount of fossil fuel.
Badenoch argued that Britain 'cannot afford not to be doing everything to get hydrocarbons out the ground' to boost growth. She criticised the current approach, saying: 'We are in the absurd situation where our country is leaving vital resources untapped while neighbours such as Norway extract them from the same seabed.' She also highlighted that despite the UK decarbonising more than any other major economy since 1990, it faces some of the highest energy prices in the developed world.
The Conservative leader said she is 'calling time on this unilateral act of economic disarmament and Labour’s impossible ideology of net zero by 2050'. She confirmed that a future Conservative government would 'scrap all mandates for the North Sea beyond maximising extraction', adding: 'It is time that common sense, economic growth and our national interest came first.'
In response, Energy and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband accused the Conservatives of being 'anti-science' by abandoning the political consensus on net zero. He cited a Met Office-led study showing the UK is already hotter and wetter, facing more extreme weather. A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said the government is delivering a 'fair and orderly transition' in the North Sea, with major investment in offshore wind and carbon capture, and reiterated the manifesto commitment not to issue new licences for new oil and gas fields.
