Ed Miliband has vowed to permanently ban fracking, warning that the drilling was “dangerous and deeply harmful to our natural environment”.
On stage at the Labour party conference, Mr Miliband launched a fresh attack on Reform UK, which has called for more extraction of oil and gas.
The Energy Secretary called on Labour delegates and activists in Liverpool to “send this bunch of frackers packing”.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a method of extracting oil and gas from shale rock, by pumping liquids deep underground at high pressures to release the gas trapped inside.
There is a de facto ban on fracking in the UK, originally brought in six years ago.
The Government ended its support for fracking in 2019 after an Oil and Gas Authority report found it was not possible to accurately predict the probability of tremors associated with the practice.
Mr Miliband branded Reform UK leader Nigel Farage “and his cronies” as “ideological extremists” in his speech.
He continued: “And we know where they want to go next because they have told us – fracking. Fracking in your communities. Fracking will not take a penny off bills. It will not create long-term sustainable jobs.
“It will trash our climate commitments, and it is dangerous and deeply harmful to our natural environment.
“Friends, the good news is that communities have fought back and won this fight before and will do so again.”
The Conservatives lifted the fracking ban in 2022 during Liz Truss’s brief premiership, but Rishi Sunak’s administration restored it.
Mr Miliband said that during this time, campaigners had “sent those frackers packing”.
Returning to Reform UK, he said: “I say, let’s ban fracking and vow to send this bunch of frackers packing too.”
Labour has used its conference this year to criticise Mr Farage and his party’s policies, among them Reform UK’s wish to “unlock Britain’s vast energy treasure of oil and gas to slash energy bills, beat the cost-of-living crisis and unleash real economic growth”.
In his address, Sir Keir Starmer said: “When was the last time you heard Nigel Farage say anything positive about Britain’s future?
“He can’t. He doesn’t like Britain, doesn’t believe in Britain, wants you to doubt it as much as he does and so he resorts to grievance.”
Mr Farage branded the attacks “a desperate last throw of the dice from a Prime Minister who’s in deep trouble, a Prime Minister who can’t even command the support of half of his own party”.
Several environmental groups have welcomed Mr Miliband’s new pledge.
Greenpeace UK’s Angharad Hopkinson said: “The Government is absolutely right to ban fracking for good.
“After years of hype, all this industry has brought to the UK are earthquakes and a couple of holes in a muddy field in Lancashire.
“Fracking is polluting, deeply unpopular, and even if it could be made to work in the UK, it’ll do nothing to lower energy bills.
“Ministers are right to focus on renewable energy as our best chance to create jobs, boost our energy independence and protect households from the turbulence of gas markets.”
Tony Bosworth, Friends Of The Earth UK climate campaigner, warned that Reform UK had “seriously miscalculated if it thinks people will lie down and accept such a deeply unpopular policy”.
And Alasdair Johnstone, head of parliamentary engagement at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), said that “gas prices are volatile and fracking in the UK wouldn’t change that”.
Instead, “the build-out of British wind and solar is helping insulate the UK against these price swings, with electric heat pumps meaning we’re increasingly less dependent on foreign gas imports to heat our homes”, he said.
