Trade union boss brands Labour’s plans to wind down North

JESSICA FRANK-KEYES

LABOUR’s plans to wind down oil and gas production in the North Sea have been branded as “naive”by one of the UK’s top trade union chiefs.

The proposals, confirmed by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer last week, would ban new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea but still allow existing projects to continue until 2050 under the party’s green energy transition plan.

“There is a lot of oil

Sea oil and gas as ‘naive’

and gas in the North Sea and the alternatives facing the country are that we either produce our own – take responsibility for our carbon emissions – or we are going to import more,” GMB general secretary Gary Smith told Sky News

“I think workers in the petrochemical industry… are going to be very worried about what Labour are saying, and I think it is time for Labour to focus on the right thing rather than what they think is the popular thing.” He said that the sector had been promised “tens of thousands of jobs” in renewable energy “time and time again” but that the positions “simply have not emerged”. Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds defended the plans, however, telling the BBC that North Sea energy extraction would continue until at least 2050, protecting 28,000 jobs. He added: “But the big opportunity comes from the transition and we don’t think further new oil and gas fields are the answer.”