Kemi Badenoch is “spreading a dangerous fiction” about North Sea energy in her bid to overturn a ban on new oil and gas licenses, a leading campaign group has said.
The Conservative leader is expected to call on the government to lift license suspensions as part of a drive to drive down energy prices, as the party launches a new campaign aimed at boosting the fossil fuel sector.
However, critics have questioned the efficiency of the policy, claiming that it would be unlikely to reduce household bills.
Tessa Khan, executive director of renewable energy campaign group Uplift, described it as a “pointless, political game played at the expense of ordinary people”.
“Kemi Badenoch is a dangerous fantasy on the North Sea and completely out of sync with the British public who just want an affordable supply of energy,” Khan said. “More drilling won’t help lower energy bills, a fact she knows and members of her cabinet have acknowledged.”
In 2023, while serving as Energy Secretary, Conservative MP Claire Coutinho acknowledged that the new licenses “will not necessarily reduce energy bills” but argued that they would improve “security” of supply. Coutinho now has the energy brief in Badenoch’s shadow cabinet.
The Labor government last year decided to ban new oil and gas licensing as it focused its attention on domestic renewable energy.
Global oil prices have surged since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the ongoing conflict in Iran, raising concerns about the long-term impact on energy costs.
Badenoch will launch her party’s “Get Britain Drilling” campaign on Monday at an oil rig off the North Sea near Aberdeen.
He has previously said that drilling in the North Sea is one of the few ways households can be saved from rising bills, a sentiment echoed by Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK.
However, experts have consistently said North Sea production is too small to influence global prices.
The Guardian reported on Saturday that hundreds of new North Sea licenses awarded by the Conservatives between 2010 and 2024 have produced just 36 days’ worth of gas so far, according to research by Uplift and energy consultancy Vore.
However, Badenoch said: “Labour’s ban on new oil and gas drilling licenses was stupid when they put it in their manifesto, this is complete madness in the middle of an energy crisis.
“Drilling our own oil and gas is about energy security, it’s about financial security, it’s about national security.
“It’s more jobs, good for business and provides tax revenue that can be used to lower bills.”
Badenoch is also expected to call on the government to eliminate windfall taxes on energy profits and give more financial support to the fossil fuel industry. Khan described it as “tone deaf” at a time when the public is “incredibly worried about their bills skyrocketing again”.
He added: “Politicians who refuse to accept the reality of a declining North Sea are putting our security and economy at risk. What’s more, they are betraying workers who need long-term, secure jobs – which will now only come from renewable energy – no pipe dream.”
Greg Jackson, chief executive of green energy company Octopus, argued that drilling for more gas in the North Sea would have “very little impact on prices” because the UK is “highly integrated” with European and global markets.
“The United States is often cited as a case where lots of drilling has kept prices low,” he said. “In terms of gas, they are not as integrated with global markets as we are, but their oil is – and as a result you can see their petrol prices rising a lot during this crisis despite so much domestic production.
“More UK oil and gas would provide greater security of supply if governments controlled exports, but I don’t think that’s what drilling proponents are proposing.
“And the bigger picture – the oil and gas industry will never ‘excess produce’, so there will never be meaningful excess capacity in global fossil fuel supply, which is why whenever there is a big supply shock it has such a devastating impact on prices.”
A Labor spokesman said: “The strange truth is that Badenoch’s own shadow energy secretary admitted that the new licenses would not cut energy bills.
“Energy bills will fall this week due to the Labor government’s actions, which the Conservatives opposed.
“The Conservatives and Reform want to outsource Britain’s energy security to fossil fuel markets over which we have no control. Labor is taking back control with record investment in clean domestic energy.”
