REFORM UK has reportedly told oil and gas companies they would introduce tax breaks and slash regulations in a move borrowed straight “from the Trump playbook”.
The FT reports that Nigel Farage’s party is on a “charm offensive” and has promised a “day one” assault on net zero policies. This would include reversing restrictions on new oil and gas exploration. Labour’s manifesto committed to not permitting any new drilling licences.
Campaign group Uplift described Reform’s policy as “nonsense”.
Deputy leader Richard Tice has reportedly approached several energy executives in recent weeks in a bid to drum up support for the party.
In exchange for slashing regulations and taxes, Reform would allegedly demand equity stakes in North Sea drilling projects in return.
Reform have moved away from focussing on Brexit and are now focussing campaigning on cutting immigration and opposing net zero policies.
One energy executive told the FT the industry “may be concerned about anything that looks like nationalisation or state ownership of privately funded infrastructure projects”.
They added that Reform’s “charm” offensive was “intriguing”, and that tax breaks and regulatory reform “borrow from the Trump playbook”.
“Reform are positioning themselves early as the party of business, but energy companies will not nail their colours to the mast so far out from the next election,” the executive added.
“I’m urging them not to give up,” Tice said.
“There’s about to be a sea change in less than four years.”
The deputy leader added that energy companies “should be getting their licence applications ready for Reform to fast-track when it comes into government”.
“I want these firms to know they are working with a shadow government that is willing to tick the box as soon as we get in.”
Tice added Reform could ask for a stake in exchange for granting a licence, or “investing hard equity”, for example, by offering investment up front for companies to drill in untapped, riskier locations, in exchange for a larger stake.
“We can completely move away from the windfall tax idea because taxpayers will be getting a slug of the profits,” he said. “We will be accused of picking winners, and yes I am picking winners. Oil and gas companies have been huge winners for decades.”
Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, said Reform’s plans to use taxpayer money to encourage more oil and gas drilling is “nonsense”.
"For starters, the UK has already burned most of its gas and what’s left is oil, most of which is exported,” she said.
"North Sea companies already get generous tax breaks to drill in what is now a very mature basin. In the case of the proposed Rosebank oil field, for example, British taxpayers would end up effectively covering most of the development costs, thanks to existing tax breaks for new drilling.
"Handing more money over to oil and gas companies would be an outrage, when the rest of us have been paying the price of their profiteering for years in the form of unaffordable energy bills. “They have been making billions while UK pensioners, families with children and disabled people have faced impossible choices like between heating and eating.”
Khan added: "It’s incomprehensible why Reform should want to side with a handful of extremely wealthy oil executives that are causing so much pain to ordinary people, just for the sake of its ideological opposition to climate policies."
Reform may not have completely won over the energy industry just yet.
One executive told the FT that Reform is still seen by many in the sector as ““one good funeral away from oblivion”.
“By now they should have: a policy unit staffed by informed wonks, a national infrastructure for disseminating policy and holding the party line, and a means to keep the leadership accountable,” they added.
“Instead they look like a 1990s PR firm - one man and his dog.”
