Transition to clean energy ‘race of our lifetime’, says Starmer – as he defends North Sea oil pledge
Sir Keir Starmer has said the end of oil and gas extraction “has to happen eventually” and the “moment for decisive action is now”.
In a speech laying out his party’s green agenda, the Labour leader called the transition to clean energy “the race of our lifetime” as he sought to reassure industrial communities that his plans would not leave them behind.
Sir Keir said that 50,000 new jobs could be created in Scotland alone, amid a dispute with unions over his pledge to ban new North Sea oil and gas exploration.
Politics Live: Keir Starmer says the Tories and SNP are ‘imploding’
“I know the ghosts industrial change unearths,” he told the audience in Leith.
“As a young lawyer, I worked with mining communities to challenge the Tories’ pit closure programme, but deep down we all know this has to happen eventually and that the only question is when.
“So in all candour, the reality is this, the moment for decisive action is now.”
Sir Keir said 90% of North Sea oil and gas has already been extracted or licensed to be extracted.
He insisted that not moving ahead with the transition to clean energy would represent a missed opportunity for British workers, following concerns about job losses and damage to the local economy.
“We’ve got to seize the new opportunities, this is the race of our lifetime and the prize is real,” Sir Keir said.
Despite his reassurances, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said “actions speak louder than words”.
“Oil and gas workers need concrete, fully costed plans that will provide cast iron guarantees that they will not be thrown under a bus in the transition to net zero.
“I have said before that we can’t have a repeat of the devastation wrought on workers and their communities by the closure of the coal mines.
“Keir is now agreeing with that, but actions speak louder than words. There can be no room for any equivocation – promises are not enough.”
Starmer said the end of oil and gas extraction “has to happen eventually”
Labour’s ambition is to make the UK a clean energy superpower by 2030.
It argues the move is central, not only to tackling climate change, but also to reducing the cost of living crisis, growing the economy, improving energy security and creating jobs.
The party has vowed to take up to £1,400 off household bills and £53bn off energy bills for businesses by the end of the decade, aided by the creation of Great British Energy – a new, publicly owned company that will generate renewable sources.
Sir Keir has already pledged to set it up within a year if his party wins the next general election, and today revealed its headquarters will be based north of the border, calling it a “down payment for a new Scotland”.
British Industry Bonus ‘to create jobs in UK’
The Labour leader also announced a new “British Industry Bonus” – a £500m a year fund for energy companies that agree to manufacture in Britain’s industrial heartlands and coastal communities.
The move emulates the thinking behind Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act – a landmark package of subsidies for any companies planning to make green products or invest in green energy in the US.
While the Conservatives have expressed scepticism over the measure, Sir Keir claimed the act is “setting the pace”, adding: “In seven months they’ve (the US) created more jobs than we have in seven years, but they’re not the only ones and in truth, we’ve never been on this pitch.”
Speaking later to Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby, he said the bonus is intended to “make sure that the jobs are here in the UK”, claiming that “whenever I go to a windfarm or any other infrastructure project and ask where were these were made, the answer is always somewhere else”.
Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby interviews the Labour leader about his clean energy plan
Labour ‘doesn’t understand climate crisis’
Another central pillar of Labour’s green plan is to axe the ban on new onshore wind within months of entering government.
The details were set out just weeks after shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves faced criticism for watering down the £28bn a year spending commitment to fund the changes, blaming rising interest rates and the “damage” the Conservatives have done to the economy.
Environment charity Friends of the Earth praised Labour for being “strong on climate rhetoric” but said clarity is needed on the pace of the fossil fuel phase out and green investment.
The Green Party also questioned the scale of Labour’s net zero ambition, after it said it will not roll back any licenses granted by the Conservatives before the next election, including the proposed Rosebank oil and gas field.
The Scottish Greens said this shows they “do not understand the climate crisis”.
The party’s climate spokesperson, MSP Mark Ruskell, said: “Unless Labour is willing to state categorically that it will scrap Rosebank then they will have lost all credibility on our climate.”
He said if the Tories lose the next election, “only Labour are capable of stopping this environmental disaster from going ahead – but they have said they won’t”.
Business
Donald Trump’s tariffs will have consequences for globalisation, the US economy and geopolitics
For decades, trade and trade policy has been an economic and political backwater – decidedly boring, seemingly uncontroversial.
Trade was mostly free and getting freer, tariffs were getting lower and lower, and the world was becoming more, not less, globalised.
But alongside those long-term trends, there were some serious consequences.
Trump latest: US president announces sweeping global trade tariffs
Mature, developed economies like the UK and US became ever more reliant on cheap imports from China and, in the process, saw their manufacturing sectors shrink.
Large swathes of the rust belt in the US – and much of the Midlands and North of England – were hollowed out.
And to some extent that’s where the story of Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” really began – with the notion that free trade and globalisation had a darker side, a side he wants to remedy via tariffs.
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Trump’s tariffs: Ed Conway analysis
He imposed a set of tariffs in his first term, some on China, some on specific materials like steel and aluminium. But the height and the breadth of those tariffs were as nothing compared with the ones we have just heard about.
Not since the 1930s has the US so radically increased the level of tariffs on all nations across the world. Back then, those tariffs exacerbated the Great Depression.
It’s anyone’s guess as to what the consequences of these ones will be. But there will be consequences.
Consequences for the nature of globalisation, consequences for the US economy (tariffs are exceptionally inflationary), consequences for geopolitics.
Imports from the UK will face a 10% tariff, while EU goods will see 20% rates. Pic: Reuters
And to some extent, merely knowing that little bit more about the White House’s plans will deliver a bit of relief to financial markets, which have fretted for months about the imposition of tariffs. That uncertainty recently reached unprecedented levels.
But don’t for a moment assume that this saga is over. Nothing of the sort. In the coming days, we will learn more – more about the nuts and bolts of these policies, more about the retaliatory measures coming from other countries.
We will, possibly, get more of a sense about whether some countries – including the UK – will enjoy reprieves from the tariffs.
To paraphrase Churchill, this isn’t the end of the trade war, or even the beginning of the end – perhaps just the end of the beginning.
Donald Trump has announced a 10% trade tariff on all imports from the UK – as he unleashed sweeping tariffs across the globe.
Speaking at a White House event entitled “Make America Wealthy Again”, the president held up a chart detailing the worst offenders – which also showed the new tariffs the US would be imposing.
“This is Liberation Day,” he told a cheering audience of supporters, while hitting out at foreign “cheaters”.
Follow live: Trump tariffs latest
He claimed “trillions” of dollars from the “reciprocal” levies he was imposing on others’ trade barriers would provide relief for the US taxpayer and restore US jobs and factories.
Mr Trump said the US has been “looted, pillaged, raped, plundered” by other nations.
Pic: AP
His first tariff announcement was a 25% duty on all car imports from midnight – 5am on Thursday, UK time.
Mr Trump confirmed the European Union would face a 20% reciprocal tariff on all other imports. China’s rate was set at 34%.
The UK’s rate of 10% was perhaps a shot across the bows over the country’s 20% VAT rate, though the president’s board suggested a 10% tariff imbalance between the two nations.
It was also confirmed that further US tariffs were planned on some individual sectors including semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and critical mineral imports.
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Trump’s tariffs explained
The ramping up of duties promises to be painful for the global economy. Tariffs on steel and aluminium are already in effect.
The UK government signalled there would be no immediate retaliation.
Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “We will always act in the best interests of UK businesses and consumers. That’s why, throughout the last few weeks, the government has been fully focused on negotiating an economic deal with the United States that strengthens our existing fair and balanced trading relationship.
“The US is our closest ally, so our approach is to remain calm and committed to doing this deal, which we hope will mitigate the impact of what has been announced today.
“We have a range of tools at our disposal and we will not hesitate to act. We will continue to engage with UK businesses including on their assessment of the impact of any further steps we take.
“Nobody wants a trade war and our intention remains to secure a deal. But nothing is off the table and the government will do everything necessary to defend the UK’s national interest.”
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Who showed up for Trump’s tariff address?
The EU has pledged to retaliate, which is a problem for Northern Ireland.
Should that scenario play out, the region faces the prospect of rising prices because all its imports are tied to EU rules under post-Brexit trading arrangements.
It means US goods shipped to Northern Ireland would be subject to the EU’s reprisals.
The impact of a trade war would be expected to be widely negative, with tit-for-tat tariffs risking job losses, a ramping up of prices and cooling of global trade.
Research for the Institute for Public Policy Research has suggested more than 25,000 direct jobs in the UK car manufacturing industry alone could be at risk from the tariffs on car exports to the US.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) had said the tariff costs could not be absorbed by manufacturers and may lead to a review of output.
The tariffs now on UK exports pose a big risk to growth and the so-called headroom Chancellor Rachel Reeves was forced to restore to the public finances at the spring statement, risking further spending cuts or tax rises ahead to meet her fiscal rules.
Read more:
What do Trump’s tariffs mean for the UK?
The rewards and risks for US as trade war intensifies
A member of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), David Miles, told MPs on Tuesday that US tariffs at 20% or 25% maintained on the UK for five years would “knock out all the headroom the government currently has”.
But he added that a “very limited tariff war” that the UK stays out of could be “mildly positive”.
He said: “There’s a bit of trade that will get diverted to the UK, and some of the exports from China, for example, that would have gone to the US, they’ll be looking for a home for them in the rest of the world.
“And stuff would be available in the UK a bit cheaper than otherwise would have been. So there is one, not central scenario at all, which is very, very mildly potentially positive to the UK. All the other ones which involve the UK facing tariffs are negative, and they’re negative to very different extents.”
Business
Donald Trump’s tariffs will have consequences for globalisation, the US economy and geopolitics
For decades, trade and trade policy has been an economic and political backwater – decidedly boring, seemingly uncontroversial.
Trade was mostly free and getting freer, tariffs were getting lower and lower, and the world was becoming more, not less, globalised.
But alongside those long-term trends, there were some serious consequences.
Trump latest: US president announces sweeping global trade tariffs
Mature, developed economies like the UK and US became ever more reliant on cheap imports from China and, in the process, saw their manufacturing sectors shrink.
Large swathes of the rust belt in the US – and much of the Midlands and North of England – were hollowed out.
And to some extent that’s where the story of Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” really began – with the notion that free trade and globalisation had a darker side, a side he wants to remedy via tariffs.
He imposed a set of tariffs in his first term, some on China, some on specific materials like steel and aluminium. But the height and the breadth of those tariffs were as nothing compared with the ones we have just heard about.
Not since the 1930s has the US so radically increased the level of tariffs on all nations across the world. Back then, those tariffs exacerbated the Great Depression.
It’s anyone’s guess as to what the consequences of these ones will be. But there will be consequences.
Consequences for the nature of globalisation, consequences for the US economy (tariffs are exceptionally inflationary), consequences for geopolitics.
Imports from the UK will face a 10% tariff, while EU goods will see 20% rates. Pic: Reuters
And to some extent, merely knowing that little bit more about the White House’s plans will deliver a bit of relief to financial markets, which have fretted for months about the imposition of tariffs. That uncertainty recently reached unprecedented levels.
But don’t for a moment assume that this saga is over. Nothing of the sort. In the coming days, we will learn more – more about the nuts and bolts of these policies, more about the retaliatory measures coming from other countries.
We will, possibly, get more of a sense about whether some countries – including the UK – will enjoy reprieves from the tariffs.
To paraphrase Churchill, this isn’t the end of the trade war, or even the beginning of the end – perhaps just the end of the beginning.
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