DONALD Trump has been panned for claiming people in Aberdeen will be “dancing in the streets” following reports Andy Burnham could back new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.
The US president has claimed that granting new oil and gas drilling licenses for the North Sea would see the UK go from a “poverty-stricken disaster” to one of the richest countries in the world.
The incoming prime minister has not confirmed reports that he is considering approving new fossil fuel production, particularly in the North Sea’s Rosebank and Jackdaw fields.
Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that reports Burnham could allow more drilling in the North Sea were “speculation” but added there would be a “change of emphasis” on the policy.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump claimed Burnham had said he would break the Labour Party’s manifesto pledged and issue new licences.
Trump said in the post: “The People of Aberdeen, in Scotland, are dancing in the streets because the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has stated that he will be opening up, all the way, the invaluable North Sea Oil!”
The president, a vocal supporter of fossil fuels, said further drilling in the North Sea would “make the United Kingdom, from a Poverty Stricken Disaster, to one of the Richest Countries anywhere in the World”.
And in his latest attack on wind power, he suggested the UK would “move the old and horrible looking windmills, which loom over and destroy the City of Aberdeen”.
However, Trump’s comments have been fiercely criticised for “peddling a fantasy” on North Sea oil and gas.
Robert Palmer, deputy director of Uplift, said the oil field is now an “ultra-mature basin” that has been “in decline for years”.
He said: “Of course Donald Trump wants us to remain dependent on fossil fuels – and on US gas specifically – but that’s not in the UK’s national interest. Renewable energy, which we’re lucky to have in abundance, is the only way to reduce our exposure to energy price shocks and mean we are not at the mercy of bad actors like Putin or the whims of American presidents.
“Trump is cheerleader-in-chief for an industry that has made obscene profits while millions of people here have struggled with unaffordable energy bills. Oil and gas is fuelling the rapid changes we’re seeing to our climate, most recently with the series of record-breaking heatwaves across the UK.”
Palmer added that people in Scotland are not “dancing in the street” while a wildfire burns in the Cairngorms for the fifth consecutive day or while bills have gone up with a “Trump Tax caused by his Iran war”.
The campaigner continued: “Trump has been clear that he's pursuing a policy of US ‘energy dominance’ and has openly used force to seize the world’s oil resources. Andy Burnham should not take advice from a man who thinks climate change is a con job and should instead double down on shifting away from our current fossil fuel dependence as quickly as possible.”
Labour’s 2024 manifesto, which Burnham has promised to honour, said the party would not issue new North Sea licences, arguing they would “not take a penny off bills” or improve energy security while accelerating climate change.
But the incoming prime minister is said to be “open-minded” about the policy.
He could claim not to be breaking the manifesto pledge by approving projects at the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields, where licences have already been granted, while still not issuing any new licences.
However, the decisions to grant the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields licences in 2022 and 2023 under the former Conservative government were overturned last year after a legal challenge.
Powell would not say whether Burnham would back more drilling, telling the BBC that she was not expecting a “change of policy” but “more a change of emphasis”.
