Exclusive: Policy lacks support in areas where drilling could start – many of which have Reform MPs or are target seats
More than a quarter of constituencies that have fracking licences in place are in Reform UK seats or target seats, research has revealed, amid rows inside the party over lifting the ban on the shale gas drilling.
A total of 127 constituencies in England and Wales have fracking licences already approved, all of them in the north, research by the Greenpeace-funded journalism website Unearthed found. Of these, 34 are in places where Reform came first or second at the last general election.
While the biggest figures in Reform’s leadership have backed a return of fracking, this sentiment disappears in areas where it could actually take place. In Lancashire, Reform councillors said fracking was not right for the north-west after a series of earthquakes shut it down in 2019, while in Scarborough in North Yorkshire the Reform-led town council voted against planning permission for an oil and gas licence that would have allowed the controversial “proppant squeeze” method, similar to fracking, on the outskirts of the town.
Fracking has been in effect banned in England since 2019, with the last remaining well in Lancashire sealed this year, and the Labour government said it had no plans to reinstate the practice.
