Starmer set to back new North Sea oil and gas drilling

Keir Starmer was set to back fresh support for North Sea oil and gas drilling from the start of his premiership, signalling an early break with Labour’s 2024 manifesto promise not to issue new licences. The shift would be welcomed by offshore workers and the Treasury, but it would also sharpen the trade-off between energy security, jobs and climate commitments.

Labour had told voters it would honour existing licences while stopping new ones, a line that left room for continued production from the fields already in place but not for a new licensing round. That matters because the UK government controls licences, not whether companies actually drill or extract oil and gas, which limits how much any prime minister can force output to change. With existing fields expected to decline over time, the practical question is how long the North Sea can keep supplying domestic energy before imports have to fill the gap.

Industry pressure has been building around that choice. Offshore Energies UK, the sector’s leading representative body, has argued the UK should support the industry and has pointed to a poll it says shows overwhelming public backing for North Sea oil and gas production. Its case is political as much as economic: platforms, supply chains and onshore services still anchor employment across Scotland and beyond, while North Sea tax receipts remain valuable to the Exchequer.

Opponents have cast the same policy in far darker terms. Stephen Flynn said Labour’s proposal for a time-limited windfall tax on fossil fuel companies would result in “100,000 job losses”. The Conservatives have also attacked Labour’s North Sea stance, saying “200,000 well-paid jobs are under threat” as a result of decisions including a ban on new licences. For Rishi Sunak’s party and SNP critics alike, the issue is not just drilling but whether Labour is willing to risk industrial jobs in pursuit of its climate platform.

The politics of the North Sea still carries the memory of earlier booms. When BP struck oil in 1970, Aberdeen benefited from the giant Forties field, which brought jobs, profits and tax revenues to the city and helped define the modern North Sea economy. That history now sits uneasily beside the region’s ageing fields and the wider push to cut emissions, leaving Starmer to decide how much support to offer an industry that can still deliver immediate gains even as its long-term decline appears inevitable.