Labour should lift its ban on drilling in the North Sea immediately to stop households being hammered by the cost of the Iran crisis, voters have said.
The findings – that Energy Secretary Ed Miliband should ditch Net Zero dogma and release the £165billion worth of oil and gas beneath British waters – come amid a growing Cabinet split on the issue and mounting pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to scrap planned petrol tax hikes in the autumn.
Since Iran began its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz following US and Israeli attacks, global energy prices have soared, with the cost of a litre of diesel in the UK heading towards the £2 mark.
Research conducted by former Conservative deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has found that half of all voters think Mr Miliband should ‘drill, baby, drill’ – in the words of Donald Trump, who was elected in the US on a promise to ramp up gas and oil production.
The poll, shared with The Mail on Sunday, also shows an unprecedented three-way split between the Tories, Reform and the Greens, who are all on 21 per cent, with Labour trailing in fourth place on 17 per cent.
It is the first time in nearly a year that Reform UK has not led in a survey and will add to mounting anxiety within the party over Nigel Farage’s apparent loss of momentum ahead of next month’s local elections.
With no end in sight to the Iran war:
- The desperate hunt for an American airman downed in Iran intensified on Saturday night as US special forces raced against armed nomads to find the missing crewman in the south of the country;
- President Trump issued a blistering warning to Iran to re-open the Strait of Hormuz, warning on social media: ‘Time is running out – 48 hours before all hell will reign [sic] down on them. Glory be to God!’
- An elite team of Royal Navy divers are on standby to deploy to the Strait of Hormuz to help defuse Iranian sea mines blocking shipping lanes;
- Former RAF pilot John Peters – who was shot down and captured in Iraq in 1991 – warned the downed airman would be involved in a desperate bid to evade capture.
A fifth of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz and its closure has put intense pressure on the global economy.
Britain’s North Sea oil reserves were central to Margaret Thatcher’s administration in the 1980s, with the £70billion in revenues helping to fund industrial restructuring and tax cuts.
Mr Miliband has stuck to his Net Zero-driven opposition to new fossil fuel extraction, insisting that approving new drilling licences would not lower bills for UK consumers.
Last week, he said that ‘people who say new exploration licences will somehow create huge amounts of energy for us’ were ‘just wrong’.
Ms Reeves, by contrast, has said she is ‘very happy’ to back exploration at the Rosebank oilfield and Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea.
How should Britain balance energy costs, climate goals, and national security in today’s crisis?
The Tories and Reform have called for the Energy Secretary to reverse his ‘ideological’ opposition to accessing the three billion barrels of oil and gas, which are worth about £165billion, with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch describing the failure as ‘economic insanity’.
On Saturday night, Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice told this newspaper: ‘This poll proves that the British people have far more common sense than the political class.
‘We’ve got hundreds of billions of pounds worth of energy treasure sitting under our feet.
‘It’s our patriotic duty to maximise British gas production, create jobs, boost growth, and achieve true energy independence.
‘Labour and the Tories have failed on this for years. Reform will lift the restrictions on day one, get drilling and deliver lower bills for everyone.’
That view has been echoed by President Trump, who has described the North Sea as a ‘treasure chest’ for the UK and urged Sir Keir Starmer to take advantage of it.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, the SNP, Tony Blair’s think tank and the Labour-supporting GMB Union have also expressed their support.
The average price of a litre of diesel at UK forecourts is up 30 per cent since the start of the war to 185.2p and could breach £2 within weeks, experts have warned.
Meanwhile, petrol prices have risen 16 per cent to an average of 154.5p per litre over the same period.
Ms Reeves, who is raking in more than £100million in extra VAT receipts each month, is planning to end the current 5p a litre fuel duty relief in September, a move which will add, on average, another £3 to the cost of filling a tank.
In response a government spokesperson told the Mail on Sunday,
‘Issuing new licences to explore new fields cannot give us energy security and will not take a penny off bills.
‘Regardless of where it comes from, oil and gas is sold on international markets, which set the price for British billpayers – making us a price taker.
‘The only way to truly protect ourselves from these price spikes is to get off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets.’
Governments around the world have been lowering fuel taxes to ease the burden on households from soaring petrol and diesel prices.
Anthony Albanese, the Australian Prime Minister, has already halved fuel duty.
Writing in this week’s Mail on Sunday, Lord Ashcroft says: ‘Having seen how precarious our supplies from the Middle East can be, more think the Government should end its absurd ban on new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea than keep it.
‘For worried families, household bills and security of supply tend to win out over Net Zero targets.’
