Keir Starmer: Labour will honour existing drilling licences under clean energy plan

The plan aims to make the UK a 'clean energy super power' by 2030

A section of the BP Eastern Trough Area Project oil platform in the North Sea. Reuters

Opposition leader Keir Starmer will promise to not rip up existing oil and gas licences as he unveils a plan to make the UK a “clean energy super power” by 2030 on Monday.

Proposals in the party's green energy plan include lifting a ban on new onshore wind within months of taking office and cutting the time taken to complete clean power projects from years to months, with “tough new targets.”

Speaking in Scotland, Mr Starmer will say Britain will run on 100 per cent clean power by 2030 under Labour, reducing household bills by £1,400 ($1,795) and businesses' energy bills by £53 billion.

Some industry experts have said the clean power goal is impossible.

During a morning media blitz ahead of his speech in Edinburgh, Mr Starmer said it will be tough, but doable.

“The whole world knows that the future of power is bound up with renewables,” he said.

“We can’t sit this out. We have a real opportunity to get ahead.

“In generations to come, if we don’t do as Labour is suggesting, this will go down as a strategic error that costs jobs here in Scotland where I am today and across the whole of the United Kingdom.”

A Labour government will not grant any new oil and gas licences, he said. But it will honour all existing ones.

“Oil and gas will be part of the mix for decades to come under existing licences or licences that are granted in the near future,” he said.

He added: “We are not going to interfere with existing licences. And that includes licences that are granted before we come into power.

“It is very important for investors who are going to invest in the UK to know that there is continuity if there is a change in government.

“What we will do in the future is one thing. But how we will ensure continuity is another.”

The Labour plan will see a new state-owned renewable energy company seek consensus with communities over renewable projects in their area.

But it will not allow them to veto proposals, said Mr Starmer.

“We have to have a mechanism in which we move forward. Otherwise you get to a situation where everybody says there ought to be more renewables and onshore wind, but I just don’t want it to be near me. So we have to have a situation where we can resolve that.

“And one of the things we are setting out therefore is amendments to planning regulations to ensure that not only do we lift the ban on onshore wind, but that we work with local communities. But in the end require local authorities to identify land that they do think is suitable.”

Mr Starmer is seeking to boost confidence in Labour’s commitment to green energy after the party scaled back its plan to invest £140 billion over five years on a clean energy transition because of cost concerns.

It now plans to “ramp up” to £28 billion a year, rather than deliver that figure from the beginning of the next parliamentary term.

The original plan fell victim to Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ efforts to show a more fiscally-conservative face to voters ahead of an election that opinion polls indicate they could win next year.