Is Starmer now a friend of the oil and gas industry?

Keir Starmer’s government appears to have softened its stance on oil and gas. Back in June 2023, the Labour leader told an audience in Edinburgh that there would be no new licences for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. Instead, a Labour government would pursue green energy all the way, slashing our bills (it promised) and taking us ever faster to the nirvana of net zero. But how the responsibilities of government come to bear. A release from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) this morning indicates some notable shuffling of ground. 

Far from cheering a recent Supreme Court ruling which quashed planning permission for a small oil well development in Surrey on the grounds that the Environmental Impact Assessment hadn’t considered the carbon emissions which would be released when the oil was burned, the government says it will step in to help the oil and gas industry to obtain the relevant consents for developing new fields.