Reform UK heads to Aberdeen to demand North Sea drilling

Richard Tice MP, the party’s energy spokesman, said backing such projects was “absolutely vital” and that such a move would be a “sign of confidence” to the industry.

A UK government decision is still awaited on the Jackdaw project, which was halted by a Supreme Court ruling in 2024 that emissions created by burning fossil fuels should be considered when granting planning permission for new drilling sites.

A challenge brought by environmental campaigners in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, over approval for the Jackdaw gas field and the Rosebank oil field north west of Shetland was upheld at the Court of Session in Edinburgh in January last year. Projects were able to reapply for consent after the Government published new environmental guidance last summer.

Mr Tice said the current rise in energy prices – linked to the conflict in the Gulf – showed the importance of the UK utilising its own supplies.

He said: “With everything that’s going on in the world at the moment, has there ever been a more important time to understand the importance of having our own secure supply of energy.”

As he spoke, the lights at the Aberdeen press conference went out – with the Reform MP explaining the “stunt” had been “to make a point” about energy supply, claiming that “we nearly had blackouts in the United Kingdom” a year ago.

He said: “To think that we are on an island of an energy treasure of oil and gas and yet we could run out of electricity.”

But as well as sourcing oil and gas offshore, the Reform UK MP said the country should also look at its onshore resources.

Mr Tice, at a campaign event in Aberdeen with Malcolm Offord, the party’s leader in Scotland, also backed fracking for shale gas as part of efforts to extract “every last barrel, every last drop” of gas and oil in the UK.

His comments came as he announced Reform UK’s “critical four-point plan” for the UK’s energy sector.

As part of this, Nigel Farage’s party wants to see the industry regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority, change its name back to the Oil and Gas Authority – with Mr Tice adding that the body should be tasked with working towards “maximum economic recovery” of the fuels.

He demanded the UK Government abolish the Energy Profits Levy on oil and gas – known as the windfall tax – which was introduced by the Tories but has continued under the Labour Government at Westminster.

Abolishing the levy would help “incentivise” the oil and gas sector, Mr Tice said, adding that 49 new wells had been drilled in Norwegian waters last year, compared to none in the UK – a situation he insisted was “frankly a humiliation”.

But Robert Palmer, deputy director of Uplift, which campaigns for a “rapid and fair transition” away from oil and gas, said: “Reform’s pledge to ‘drill the North Sea’, while promising to block renewables, is a nightmare double whammy that would see higher energy bills for longer.”

Mr Palmer said “new drilling will do nothing to improve the UK’s energy security”, adding that “the UK has burned most of its gas, and most of what is left in the North Sea is oil, the vast majority of which is exported”.

An Ipsos poll on Wednesday suggested Reform support has dipped by one point to be tied with Labour on 15%.