Crunch time in Aberdeen Labour's oil pledge tested by 'open door' to new drilling

It was inevitable that Nigel Farage would take Reform UK's campaign tour to Aberdeen.

- Jillian Ambrose

It was inevitable that Nigel Farage would take Reform UK's campaign tour to Aberdeen. On a visit to the capital of the UK's oil and gas industry last week he welcomed a defecting Conservative councillor, the 13th switch to his party's ranks in Scotland to date. Reform hopes to make hay from discontent about the government's North Sea policies, the demise of the oil and gas basin and the vast workforce that depends on it. The populist party has vowed to reverse Labour's ban on fresh North Sea oil and gas drilling as a "day one" priority if elected to power in 2029. Farage's naked targeting of the Granite City and of net zero has some in Westminster and the energy industry asking what would once have been unthinkable: will Labour be forced to water down or U-turn on its North Sea pledges?

A clean energy superpower. In less than a year the government has bent to the backlash against high-profile policies on benefits and winter fuel allowances, stoking speculation that its position on the North Sea might also crumble. Industry sources believe ministers may give the green light to new North Sea projects from this autumn. The Guardian understands senior government advisers have told investors that drilling could move ahead, provided the projects are close to existing pipelines and do not extend into "greenfield" areas.

One energy investor said advisers in the Treasury and No 10 had "quite openly" signalled that the door would be left open to new oil and gas projects. "Myself and a number of colleagues have been told that the government is moving towards the idea of allowing new licences," the source said. The claims are at odds with the green agenda set out by Ed Miliband, the energy security and net zero secretary, who described plans to develop the Jackdaw and Rosebank oilfields in the North Sea as "an act of climate vandalism". The two oilfields will be a critical test of Labour's green principles.