Donald Trump has told Keir Starmer to abandon his renewable energy strategy and ramp up North Sea oil and gas production.

Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to distance himself from “dangerous” pressure from Donald Trump to ditch his clean energy strategy and open up the North Sea to more oil and gas drilling.

The US President has demanded the Prime Minister abandon his blueprint to ramp up renewable energy and instead focus on “modernised drilling” for oil and gas in the North Sea.

Keir Starmer and Donald Trump - pictured in February - announced a 'breakthrough' trade deal between the UK and US this week. Picture: Carl Court - Pool/Getty Images

The move comes just two weeks after the US and UK signed a trade deal where Sir Keir’s government was able to avoid the harshest tariffs compared to other countries.

But Mr Trump has faced a backlash for his energy comments, claiming there is 100 years left of extracting oil and gas in the North Sea and that more drilling for fossil fuels will bring down energy bills.

Sir Keir’s Labour government has committed to end new licences for North Sea drilling in order to keep the UK’s legal climate commitments on track. The International Energy Agency has warned that global climate targets are not consistent with further fossil fuels expansion.

In a post on TruthSocial, Mr Trump said: “Our negotiated deal with the United Kingdom is working out well for all.

“I strongly recommend to them, however, that in order to get their energy costs down, they stop with the costly and unsightly windmills, and incentivise modernised drilling in the North Sea, where large amounts of oil lay waiting to be taken.

“A century of drilling left, with Aberdeen as the hub. The old fashioned tax system disincentives drilling, rather than the opposite. UK’s Energy Costs would go WAY DOWN, and fast!”,”

Mr Trump has previously rallied against North Sea wind turbines.

In 2015, he lost a court battle with the Scottish Government over a wind development off the coast of Aberdeenshire, which he argued would spoil the view from his golf course at Menie.

Scotland needs a skilled workforce if it is to create a major renewable energy industry (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell) | Getty Images

The intervention from the US president comes as Ofgem, the energy regulator, announced that the price cap would fall by 7 per cent in July to £1,720 a year for the average household, although that is still higher than the £1,568 cap in July last year.

Labour has come under pressure to follow through with a manifesto vow to “lower energy bills, not just in the short-term but for good”. Renewable energy is a crucial part of the UK and Scottish governments’ ambitions to meet future energy demand and cut carbon emissions.

Mr Trump’s claim that the North Sea basin has up to 100 years of fossil fuels remaining has also drawn criticism.

The most accessible oil and gas has already been extracted and the UK North Sea. Analysis from Ernst and Young has found that in the Scottish section of the North Sea, more than 80 per cent of future production is expected to arise from existing sanctioned fields, and there are unlikely to be large fields which have not been exploited.

Production in Scotland is expected to be around a third of 2019 levels by 2035 and minimal, less than 3 per cent, of the 1999 peak, by 2050.

Christine Jardine MP, the Liberal Democrats’ Scotland spokesperson, said: "This is another hapless and unwelcome foray into an area of domestic UK policy from which President Trump should just butt out.

"Yet again he is underlining why his volatility and unpredictability demand that any deals with him are treated with upmost caution.

"We need our Prime Minister now to make it clear to President Trump that we expect any comments to respect our national integrity and that this kind of careless, disrespectful intervention in domestic politics is just an irritant."

Tessa Khan, executive director of campaign group, Uplift, said Mr Trump “clearly knows nothing about the North Sea other than the view from his golf course”.

She said: “After 60 years of drilling, the UK has burned most of its gas and what’s left is oil, most of which the UK exports, which contributes nothing to making sure the UK has an affordable supply of energy.

"The reason the UK’s energy bills are high is because of our reliance on expensive and volatile gas, as Ofgem confirmed.”

TEi Limited provides specialist industrial services in the oil and gas, power generation, steel making and chemical processing sectors. Photo: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

Greenpeace UK head of politics, Ami McCarthy, said: “It’s our exposure to global gas prices that’s inflating our energy bills, not renewables. More oil and gas from the North Sea will make no difference - it will only keep us strapped to the rollercoaster of volatile global markets.”

Scottish Greens co-leader and spokesperson for net zero, Patrick Harvie, said “household energy bills have been volatile because of our over-reliance on fossil fuels”.

He added: "Scotland’s renewable industry is generating cheap, clean, abundant power, but households are not getting the benefit in the bills they pay.

“Donald Trump’s dangerous ideas must be ignored. We must stick to our net zero targets. We cannot backtrack any further or pander to a climate change denier like Trump, who ignores the extreme harm the fossil fuel industry has caused.”

But the Scottish Conservatives have criticised the strategy to end new North Sea licences.

The party's shadow energy and net zero secretary, Douglas Lumsden, said: “Labour and the SNP have turned their backs on Scotland’s oil and gas industry.

“John Swinney and Keir Starmer have shamefully sat back while jobs continue to be lost throughout the sector, including operations shutting down at Grangemouth.

“That’s nothing short of economic vandalism for Scotland’s economy. We still need oil and gas for our energy needs, so it is common sense to be producing it here in Scotland, rather than importing it from abroad.

“At Holyrood it is only the Scottish Conservatives under Russell Findlay’s leadership who are standing up for highly skilled workers and recognising the sector’s huge importance to our energy security.”

Speaking to MSPs earlier this week, Labour energy minister Michael Shanks insisted that “we won’t allow new licences to explore new fields”.

Energy Minister Michael Shanks with Cerulean Winds' alliance partners on a tour of the Port of Ardersier near Inverness hearing about the Aspen floating windfarm which will create over 1,000 jobs. | Contributed

He added: “Issuing new licences for exploration will make only a very marginal difference to actual output from the North Sea. It is a super mature basin, it is a declining basin - it’s becoming more difficult and expensive to extract from the North Sea.

“The future in the long-term of the North Sea is not oil and gas. We have to now ramp up the industries that come next that deliver those good well-paid jobs.”

An SNP spokesperson said:“Scotland is internationally recognised as having a huge wealth of natural resources and energy potential, but it would be wrong for anyone to suggest renewable energy shouldn’t also be at the heart of that prosperous and secure energy future, when it will be essential.

"Scotland can continue to be at the heart of energy production and export, but that can only happen if Westminster wakes up to the reality of what that requires and does not actively destroy the existing jobs here and properly invests in green technologies - harnessing the expertise and skilled workforce Scotland’s energy sector currently holds.”

The UK government was contacted for comment.

Sir Keir Starmer urged to oppose 'dangerous' Donald Trump demand to U-turn on oil licensing ban

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