UK Opposition Leader Keir Starmer said oil and gas would remain part of the country’s energy mix “for many, many years” as he sought to reassure union critics of his plans to remove fossil fuels from the North Sea.
Labor proposals to ban all new North Sea oil and gas licenses are “naive” and will create a “cliff” for the industry that will hit jobs, he told Sky News on Sunday GMB General Secretary Gary Smith. This came after Sharon Graham, who heads the Unite union, said on Twitter that a properly planned transition was needed to “secure jobs, pay and conditions for all the tens of thousands of workers in the North Sea and supporting industries.
@UKLabour Now it must be very clear that they will not let the workers pay the price of the transition to renewable energies. As for jobs, we can’t have jam tomorrow. 2/3
— Sharon Graham (@UniteSharon) May 30, 2023
Criticism from unions will worry Starmer as he prepares to fight a general election in January 2025. In current polls, Labor enjoys a double-digit lead over the ruling Conservatives, the opposition would win a national vote .
Both the GMB and Unite are affiliates and financial sponsors of the Labor Party. The GMB contributed more than 1.2 million pounds ($1.5 million) last year and Unite more than 750,000 pounds, according to data from the Electoral Commission.
“We now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to harness the jobs of the future,” Starmer told reporters on a visit to the Hinkley C nuclear project in western England on Monday. “Oil and gas will be part of this, because where there are existing licences; will continue into the 2050s, so oil and gas will be part of our energy mix for many, many years to come.”
Starmer went on to say that the “next generation” of jobs would be in renewable energy and nuclear power. These are two industries that the opposition party has long championed, and under its ‘Climate Investment Pledge’ a Labor government would invest £28 billion a year in green industries, including targets for land and sea wind, solar, tidal and nuclear energy and hydrogen. .
