A few weeks ago it seemed as if some sense was finally creeping into Labour’s energy policy. It was reported at one stage that even Ed Miliband himself had changed his mind and come round to the view that it would, after all, make sense to use more of our own oil and gas reserves rather than import the stuff: better economically as well as environmentally, as transporting fossil fuels around the world costs money and involves greater carbon emissions. This is especially true in the case of liquified natural gas (LNG).
But it seems we were all deceived. Far from relaxing Ed Miliband’s moratorium on new oil and gas extraction, the Energy Independence Bill announced in the King’s Speech seeks to convert it into a permanent ban. New fields such as Rosebank and Jackdaw simply would not be able to be developed; the only oil and gas extraction allowed in the UK and British waters would be existing fields being worked out. Keir Starmer has, in other words, ignored the advocacy of his own Chancellor and several other ministers, who wanted to increase UK production in response to the crisis in Iran. He has instead given Miliband free rein to accelerate the demise of North Sea production for good.
The Miliband Left is shrinking our industry at a vastly greater rate than Thatcher’s policies ever did
Labour’s energy policy is now pretty indistinguishable from that of Just Stop Oil. There is little hope that that will be changed so long as Starmer remains prime minister or if Miliband replaces him. Britain will be stuck with an energy policy which is making energy unnecessarily expensive for UK consumers and driving our remaining industry to extinction. There is no reason behind this policy, just virtue-seeking. It will do nothing to reduce Britain’s dependence on oil, merely increase our dependence on imports.
No UK government can bind the hands of its successor. A future administration will be free to repeal the Energy Independence Act, if it does go on to become an act rather than a mere bill. But by then the damage will likely have been done. The expertise built up in Britain over the past 60 years will have dissipated and most likely picked up by countries which have a more reasoned energy policy.
Back in the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher’s government was frequently accused of laying Britain’s industrial base to waste as it tried to rationalise failing industries and make them economic. The Left at that time was wholly in favour of Britain retaining heavy industry. Not so the Miliband Left which is now in power, and which is shrinking our industry at a vastly greater rate than Thatcher’s policies ever did. There is now little hope of a rational energy policy emerging from this government. For that, Labour will have to be removed from office.
