LONDON — Protesters demanding an immediate halt to British fossil fuel production are “contemptible,” Labour leader Keir Starmer has said, in his latest move to distance the party from U.K. climate activist group Just Stop Oil.
In an article for the Sunday Times, the opposition leader emphasized Labour’s position that the country will need to exploit existing North Sea oil and gas sites “for decades to come.”
Just Stop Oil has been heavily criticized for its use of disruptive public protests to campaign against fossil fuels.
Starmer — who has faced accusations from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that Labour is too close to the protest group — said simply turning “off the taps in the North Sea” would create “chaos for working people” in the oil and gas industry.
Labour has instead called for a ban on new exploration licences in the North Sea — a policy fiercely opposed by Sunak’s Conservatives, who last week trumpeted their own plans to “max out” dwindling North Sea oil and gas supplies while still pursuing a national goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Just Stop Oil said they were “not demanding the taps are turned off overnight,” but wanted to see a “managed decline of North Sea oil.”
Starmer said Sunday that there are “those from both the left and the right” who want climate policy “to be an ideological identity issue,” and accused Sunak of “trying to create a cultural wedge between motorists and those who want to tackle climate change.”
A Labour government, he said, would unify the country in a “national mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030” — a reference to the party’s plan to decarbonize Britain’s electricity supply by the end of this decade.
Starmer attacked the Conservative government’s record on energy security, citing a de facto ban on onshore wind farms and disagreement between ministers over the U.K.’s 2030 target for banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.
The government’s “clickbait” policies will drive away investment from the country, Starmer claimed.