The new prime minister of the UK has spent the first 10 days in power revealing crowd-pleasing tax breaks, building a new Number 10 team, and potentially opening up new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.
Surprisingly for a nation on its 7th prime minister in a decade, Andy Burnham’s work so far has not sparked immediate controversy. The former mayor of Greater Manchester started off with a strong 38 percent approval rating, and is now tightly head-to-head with far-right Reform leader Nigel Farage in polls, with elections due in 2029.
However, reports that the PM will approve the further development of oil and gas fields off Scotland’s shore could heavily damage the ‘King of the North’ in the eyes of a recently disillusioned Labour party electorate.
The government was expected to approve the further development of the Rosebank and Jackdaw offshore fossil fuel projects, despite commitments during his mayorship and in the Labour manifesto promising that no new oil and gas licences would go ahead.
However, the two oilfields east of Aberdeen were already in the system from the last conservative government, with a consultation on Jackdaw finishing on 8 August to give a more conclusive answer on whether the left-leaning PM will drill in the largest untapped oilfield in UK waters.
