The Labour politicians looking to replace Keir Starmer have been talking about expanding drilling in the North Sea: among said politicians is Wes Streeting. In response, Green Party deputy Rachel Millward has described his plan as “environmentally reckless and economically illiterate”.

Reckless Streeting

As we reported, Streeting said the following about drilling in the North Sea:

Yes. I think that’s probably where Ed [Miliband] will get to. When he makes a decision, I’d be surprised if that wasn’t the case.

The granting of those licences will not necessarily translate into cheaper bills, but it will translate into higher tax receipts

The reason he’s saying this is simple; it’s because Reform is saying the same thing. The reason Reform is saying it is also simple; it’s because the party takes fistfulls of cash from the fossil fuel industry.

Speaking on Streeting’s plan, Millward said:

Rosebank alone contains enough fossil fuel to produce over 200 million tonnes of CO2 if burned – more than the combined annual emissions of 28 low-income countries.

Opening up these oilfields will do nothing to improve energy security or bring down bills either, because any oil and gas extracted will be sold at global prices on the world market.

To be completely fair to Streeting, he did admit that wrecking our Net Zero targets wouldn’t benefit ordinary Britons. To be less fair to him, why do it then?

Renewable technology is better than ever and continuing to improve; why not double down on that to drive down energy costs while simultaneously making some money?

Oh yeah, because Reform said we need to cling to the past, and Labour has no vision for the future.

Pathetic.

And although we’ve always said Streeting was the oiliest Labour politician, we didn’t mean it so literally.

Featured image via The Canary

By Willem Moore

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