Labour’s Oil and Gas Ban Will Create £4.5 Billion Tax Black Hole, Energy Secretary Warns

Labour’s ban on new North Sea oil and gas exploration has sparked fears of a £4.5 billion tax revenue shortfall, with Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho warning of massive job losses and energy insecurity. The Telegraph has the details.

Claire Coutinho has accused Sir Keir Starmer of planning to take Britain “back to the dark ages” with his Net Zero plan to phase out domestic production.

The Labour leader has made a manifesto pledge to block exploration of new oil and gas fields because it would “accelerate the worsening climate crisis”.

Tory analysis has claimed that the ban would lead to lost tax takings of £4.5 billion over the next 10 years and £12.4 billion in total as North Sea production dwindles.

Ministers have warned that the plan would also threaten 200,000 highly paid jobs that are dependent on the sector, many of them based in Scotland.

Writing for the Telegraph, Ms. Coutinho branded the plans “a spectacular act of economic self-harm” that would leave the U.K. “colder and poorer”.

The Energy Secretary said the cash would have to be recouped by hiking other taxes while the policy led to “increased reliance on foreign imports, lost jobs and even blackouts”.

She wrote: “It would be a triumph of ideology over common sense. Exporting jobs for the sake of importing virtue signalling. The choice is clear.

“Labour’s proposals will destroy jobs, raise taxes and hike up your bills. In a truism of all Labour governments – once they have run out of money, they will come for yours.”

Labour dismissed the claims as “desperate nonsense” and said its plans to invest in renewable energy production would lower bills for households.

The party will today set out how it aims to wean Britain off fossil fuels by creating 650,000 new jobs – many in green technology – in former industrial heartlands. …

Sir Keir pressed ahead with the ban on new drilling despite facing fierce opposition from the unions, who warned it was “irresponsible”.

Worth reading in full.

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CircusSpot
CircusSpot
1 year ago

It is impossible to achieve growth with high domestic and business energy costs.
Reform policy document is launched today and makes this point.

varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  CircusSpot

Net Zero to the economy is like having a rucksack full of bricks and trying to run a marathon. You are likely going to finish last if you ever manage to finish at all before you drop dead.

Peter W
Peter W
1 year ago
Reply to  varmint

Ah, but at least you will have moved some bricks! Nobody asked you to move them but it’s important that you do. Because bricks.

soundofreason
soundofreason
1 year ago

The [Labour] party will today set out how it aims to wean Britain off fossil fuels by creating 650,000 new jobs – many in green technology – in former industrial heartlands. …

Who will be the employer for these new jobs? Where will the employer(s) get the money to pay these people? If, as I suspect, the employer will be some semi-state controlled ‘business’ it would be cheaper for the central government to just hand out free money directly to the 650,000.

Andante
Andante
1 year ago
Reply to  soundofreason

I think they said the money will come from a windfall tax on the energy companies. But then if it is these same companies that Liebour want to do the manufacturing … the windfall tax will have to be given back to them. Whoever does the manufacturing, there has to be a massive supply of raw materials and a continuous supply of low cost energy. I wonder where the low cost energy will come from?

Dinger64
1 year ago

Look forward to the coming 5 years of lefty insanity!
Just as the world heads right, the UK turns left!

Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  Dinger64

I’m not. I don’t like the thought of Blackouts. especially when they’re based on a false premice.

huxleypiggles
1 year ago

Off-T

Paul Weston’s final piece on the C1984 scamdemic. A grim summary but more than confirms my accusations of treason against our establishment and most especially PM’s.

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/a-beginners-guide-to-covid-part-18-afterword/

Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

I saw a clip on GB News yesterday where they interview random people. They interviewed some farmer in Devon I think, he had a nice old house there in the country. Talking about the election he is still going to vote Conservative. I thought FGS you are a Chicken voting for KFC. They are WEF captured.

varmint
1 year ago

Question—–What kind of blithering idiots ban the fossil fuels that provides 85% of it for the world? —Answer—-Ideologically motived pretend to save the planet half wits that know nothing about energy or climate for that matter, and are simply part of the UN/WEF globalist eco socialist scam, that wants to impose a Sustainable Development Technocracy on us all. ———–Wake up people you are being played. The UK Political Class and their Net Zero fraud are deliberately lowering your standard of living under the false pretences of a climate crisis. —There is NONE.

Marcus Aurelius knew

So without oil and gas we’ll be cold, hungry, stuck, sick, poor, depressed.

But look on the bright side: there’ll be a lot less tax money sloshing around to prop up “renewables”.

Maybe this is the real reset that’s required to expose the con.

David101
1 year ago

So they will deliberately dismantle the fossil fuel industry, even though there’s nothing wrong with it since it’s a system that has reliably fuelled modern civilization for a century… then tax-raid the general population to fill the gaping void in their ability to finance “renewables” (a shortfall that they, deliberately, have created), all for a bit of virtue and not much energy supply…

He should defect to the Monster Raving Loonies, where he’ll become known as Raving Lord Starmer.

Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago

Here in Wales there are signs in many places against on land wind farms. We don’t want to be another Germany!

David101
1 year ago

Labour will “come for your cash” indeed, once it’s exported a good chunk of the nation’s wealth overseas by becoming increasingly reliant on foreign imports of oil and gas.

Paradoxically, the only way of achieving “Net Zero” with it’s £500 billion price tag, is to continue to produce oil and gas domestically!