{"id":719684,"date":"2026-07-30T20:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T20:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/719684\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T20:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T20:15:13","slug":"burnham-promises-pragmatic-approach-to-north-sea-oil-and-gas-fossil-fuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/719684\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnham promises \u2018pragmatic\u2019 approach to North Sea oil and gas | Fossil fuels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham has said he will take a \u201cpragmatic\u201d approach to oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, saying the government could not ignore the potential energy resources it holds.<\/p>\n

The prime minister\u2019s comments came in response to a question about his conversation with Donald Trump on his first day in No 10. Trump had said Burnham told him he would \u201copen up\u201d North Sea oil, something the UK summary of the call made no mention of.<\/p>\n

Questioned by reporters during a defence-related visit to Cumbria about what he had said to the US president, Burnham replied: \u201cI indicated in the phone call that we had, a week last Monday, that I would take a pragmatic approach when it comes to the North Sea, and that is my intention as we go forward from here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a resource there. When people are struggling, we can\u2019t ignore that. Hence, me indicating that to the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains unclear whether such an approach would involve allowing more drilling on existing licences or the issuing of new ones. Labour\u2019s 2024 election manifesto ruled out the latter action, and Burnham has said he will stick to the promises in the document.<\/p>\n

A demonstrator outside the Department For Energy Security and Net Zero in London last week. Photograph: Temilade Adelaja\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Any move to even stretch the manifesto pledge would probably anger<\/a> a number of Labour MPs, including Ed Miliband, the former energy secretary, who is now foreign secretary.<\/p>\n

This is particularly the case given Burnham\u2019s hint toward a more relaxed approach came on the same day firefighters battled a major heathland fire<\/a> in Suffolk and a day after half of England was declared to be officially in drought<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zack Polanski, the leader of the Green party in England and Wales, condemned Burnham\u2019s comments, saying it was particularly alarming during a period of drought and wildfires.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllowing new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea will worsen the climate breakdown,\u201d said Polanski, \u201cputting more lives at risk and doing untold damage to our economy. It\u2019s not too late for Burnham to do the right thing and commit to leaving dangerous fossil fuels in the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key decision will be what to do with the Jackdaw gasfield, east of Aberdeen, and the Rosebank oilfield, west of Shetland. Campaigners have warned that approving these would break the manifesto pledge and official consultations are still taking place.<\/p>\n

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Climate activists try to send a message to the UK\u2019s new energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, last week. Photograph: Temilade Adelaja\/Reuters<\/p>\n

There is speculation that some new projects could be allowed if they are tiebacks: a form of approval where new fields are connected to already-approved facilities through pipelines. It could be argued this approach does not breach the manifesto.<\/p>\n

Miliband once described Rosebank as \u201cclimate vandalism\u201d. Miatta Fahnbulleh, who replaced him as energy secretary, has expressed similar views, but has also said she would be pragmatic about the idea of drilling.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Wednesday about his conversation with Burnham \u2013 who he referred to as \u201cthe new gentleman\u201d \u2013 Trump said: \u201cWell, he did say one very good thing. He said he\u2019s going to open up North Sea oil. If he does that, you\u2019re going to be a wealthy country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham has said he will take a \u201cpragmatic\u201d approach to oil and gas drilling in the North…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-719684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}