Anas Sarwar raises split with UK Labour over oil as ministers brace for fresh legal action

Anas Sarwar has claimed the UK should be “maximising our existing resources” in comments potentially putting him at odds with Labour’s vow to end to new oil and gas licences.

Anas Sarwar has raised questions over whether he is at odds with his Westminster Labour colleagues over oil and gas as UK ministers are bracing for another legal challenge over North Sea licences.

The Scottish Labour leader has suggested that the UK should be “maximising our existing resources as part of a managed transition” - appearing to suggest he supports further extraction of fossil fuel reserves.

Energy Security Ed Miliband, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar at the Port of Greenock | PA

Mr Sarwar added that “if the choice is more expensive imports from despotic regimes like Russia or new oil and gas”, then home-grown oil and gas should be prioritised.

Labour’s general election manifesto vowed to ban future North Sea oil and gas licences, although it remains unclear whether the controversial Rosebank and Jackdaw developments will be given the green light once updated environmental permits are applied for, with stricter criteria needing to be met.

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It is believed the fact those developments have licences but will need to reapply for environmental permissions means Labour ministers could allow the developments to proceed.

READ MORE: Labour's North Sea plan to create additional energy jobs - despite oil and gas decline

Scottish Labour MP and UK energy minister, Michael Shanks, has insisted that the UK’s energy future “does not lie in more oil and gas”, leaving Mr Sarwar’s comments, delivered at the New Statesman’s igniting growth conference in London, potentially at odds with the UK government.

Caroline Rance from Friends of the Earth Scotland has accused Mr Sarwar of spinning “a completely false choice between climate-wrecking fossil fuels either from the North Sea or from Russia”.

She added: “The only rational choice is a rapid switch to power Scotland with renewables.”

READ MORE: Rosebank approval 'poised to open floodgates' to 13 oil projects despite Labour's drilling vow

Robert Palmer, deputy director of campaign group Uplift, added that Mr Sarwar “needs to put the interests of Scotland’s energy workers first, not their bosses” and “get serious about transition planning".

The potential split comes as charity Oceana UK confirmed it will challenge the UK government in the High Court over 31 North Sea oil and gas licences.

Oceana will argue the developments will cause deep and lasting harm to marine wildlife and climate stability - with more than two thirds of the licences located inside marine protected areas, home to wildlife from porpoises to puffins.

Labour has vowed to ban new North Sea oil and gas licences

Despite this, Oceana claims that oil spills were not considered in the impact assessments for the licences, issued under the previous Conservative UK government.

Licences issued to 15 companies including Ineos, Total Energies and Horizon Energy are subject to the legal action.

READ MORE: North Sea could produce half of all UK oil and gas in run up to 2050 – report

Unlike the Rosebank and Jackdaw court cases where the UK government stepped away from defending the challenges, which determined the developers will have to take the emissions caused by burning the oil and gas contained in the projects into account, Labour ministers are contesting the latest legal action.

Naomi Tilley, campaign lead for Oceana UK, said: “Labour has made a welcome commitment to ending new oil and gas licences and to building a future powered by clean, reliable sources of energy. They now need to hold true to that and choose the right side of history.

“The steady drip-feed of pollution from oil and gas developments has well-documented and severe impacts on marine wildlife ranging from cancers to stillbirths, and across species from porpoises to cod.”

A Department of Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “Oil and gas production will continue to play an important role for decades to come, with the majority of future production in the North Sea expected to come from producing fields or fields already being developed on existing licences.

“Only by sprinting to clean power by 2030 can the UK take back control of its energy and protect both family and national finances from fossil fuel price spikes.”