Reform’s plans to abolish the Warm Home Discount

Robert Palmer, deputy Director of Uplift, questioned Reform’s pledge on new drilling.

He said: “Reform’s pledge to ‘drill Britain drill’, while opposing renewable energy, is a nightmare double whammy that would see higher energy bills for longer.

“They are peddling a fantasy – new drilling would not take a penny off our bills, and would have no meaningful impact on the UK’s energy security. After fifty years of drilling, the UK has burned most of its gas and most of what’s left in the basin is now oil, the vast majority of which is exported.

“The relatively small Jackdaw gas field would only reduce our gas imports by around 2%, while most of the reserves from Rosebank would be put in tankers and shipped overseas, like the overwhelming majority of North Sea oil.

“It’s also economically illiterate, when, in just one month recently, our renewable energy industry saved the UK from gas imports worth £1bn, as well as employing thousands of people.

“Add to that the fact that Reform UK thinks we should focus on the upsides of climate change, such as improving the quality of English wine, while the rest of us have just experienced the hottest ever UK summer, with thousands of heat-related deaths, UK farmers struggling to grow food in drought, and devastating wildfires.

“Like Trump, they are cheerleaders for the oil and gas industry that is not just driving these worrying changes to our climate, but is profiteering off the back of UK billpayers. Their obsession with oil and gas and ideological opposition to renewables puts them at odds with the majority of people in the UK.”