“If Andy Burnham has any common sense he will allow drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.” Kemi Badenoch said it standing at NHV Helicopters in Dyce, near Aberdeen, a firm that flies crews to and from offshore energy operations. She had just come out of a roundtable with industry leaders.
The Conservative leader told the incoming prime minister not to give in to the “Net Zero zealots” she names, Ed Miliband among them, and said many Labour MPs are “hell-bent” on opposing new fields. Burnham formally replaces Sir Keir Starmer as PM on Monday. Badenoch wants him to sack Miliband as energy secretary in a day-one reshuffle and drop the ban on new licences. “Perhaps if Keir Starmer had overruled Ed Miliband and done the right thing he might be in the job today,” she said.
Rosebank and Jackdaw as a test
Labour’s policy is to oppose new oil and gas drilling licences to help protect the climate. Two projects sit at the center of the argument: Rosebank and Jackdaw. A government regulator has just opened a public consultation on both, and together they could supply 10 per cent of UK needs if approved.
Badenoch called the decisions an early “litmus test” for Burnham. “They will be about whether this man is serious about growth or not,” she said, and put a figure on it: “There is £4 billion of tax revenue that’s sitting in the North Sea from Jackdaw and Rosebank alone in this parliament. How can you say no to that?”
She also made an environmental case. Drilling at home, she argued, leaves a lower carbon footprint than importing oil and gas, so the current approach is “actually making the environmental problem worse.” Her party wants to lift the energy profits levy and issue new licences. “We all want to fix the climate change issue,” she said, but “these net zero plans are not working.”
Aberdeen and a jet tax
The visit followed the Conservatives’ historic win in the Aberdeen South byelection last month, which the party fought as a referendum on North Sea jobs. New MP Douglas Lumsden joined her. Badenoch said Aberdeen is her second most visited city after London. “It’s not just at election time we turn up,” she said.
Offshore Energies UK, Adura, Well-Safe, Baker Hughes and Harbour Energy took part in the roundtable. Adura is behind Rosebank and Jackdaw.
Badenoch also went after the SNP’s planned private jet tax, which finance secretary Jenny Gilruth plans to start in 2028. It could cost firms £30 million a year and was promoted by the Scottish Greens. She called it proof of “a party that’s run out of ideas” and said private jets can be essential for businesses flying to places with no airports.
SNP MSP George Adam fired back that the Tories should focus on “the real issues which matter to people across Scotland” instead of worrying about their “rich pals” paying more for private jets.
