Labour’s hot air

Tory attacks on Labour energy policy seem to have hit home. Earlier in the summer, the Prime Minister said that Sir Keir Starmer, the Opposition leader, was effectively taking orders from Just Stop Oil in developing his party’s approach to future oil and gas exploration. 

The attempt to associate him with the radical climate group evidently irked Sir Keir. In a newspaper article, he has emphatically distanced himself from the direct action zealots, calling them “contemptible” for demanding the immediate end of drilling in the North Sea. 

Yet at least the views of the activists, however misguided, have the virtue of clarity: they want all carbon-based energy sources to be shut down, with no thought given to the consequences. Sir Keir may hope to burnish his populist credentials by denouncing their antics, but his own policy remains mired in obfuscation and confusion. 

Writing in The Times, he promised to approach energy security in a “pragmatic, hard-headed way”. This would mean not revoking any new North Sea licences issued by the current Government up to and including election day. “But nor will we issue new licences to explore new fields,” he said. Sir Keir is addressing a central complaint that energy companies will not invest in the North Sea if they think that Labour will pull the plug. 

But an election date is a pretty arbitrary cut-off point for decisions affecting the country’s long-term energy security. Sir Keir seems prepared to sanction new fields while trying to signal that he does not really support them. He says he wants Britain to be a “clean energy superpower”, whatever that is, by 2030. He presumably hopes that hot air will provide the fuel we need.