Rishi Sunak is facing yet another by-election after a former energy minister said he was quitting in protest over controversial plans to expand North Sea oil and gas drilling.
Chris Skidmore, who signed the UK commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 into law, said he could no longer support the government’s damaging course of action.
In a scathing attack on the Prime Minister’s plans for more oil and gas licensing, he said it was “a tragedy that the UK had been allowed to lose its climate leadership”.
He said the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill due before the Commons on Monday would achieve nothing apart from sending a global signal that the UK was “rowing ever further back” from its climate pledges.
“I cannot vote for the bill next week. The future will judge harshly those that do.
“At a time when we should be committing to more climate action, we simply do not have any more time to waste promoting the future production of fossil fuels that is the ultimate cause of the environmental crisis that we are facing”, he wrote in a letter posted on Twitter/X.
He said he was resigning the Tory whip ahead of formally quitting as an MP next week.
The MP for Kingswood in South Gloucestershire said he could not vote for legislation that “clearly promotes the production of new oil and gas” and failing to act on the matter would be “to tolerate a status quo that cannot be sustained”.
The Bill was a key part of Mr Sunak's first King's Speech, with ministers claiming it would bring enhanced energy security to the UK, a claim they later dropped, admitting the private firms extracting any new oil and gas could sell it freely on international markets.
Mr Sunak said the legislation would help secure 200,000 jobs and £16billion in annual tax receipts, with licensing rounds contingent on specific tests to advance the transition to net zero.
Billed as “pragmatic, proportionate and realistic”, the new system would require the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) to invite applications for new production licences on an annual basis.
The Government said the change would reduce the UK’s vulnerability to imports from hostile states such as Russa, “leaving us less exposed to unpredictable international forces”.
Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie praised Mr Skidmore for exposing "the reckless climate wrecking hypocrisy at the heart of a Tory government that claims to care about our environment while fighting to extract every last drop of fossil fuels".
He said: “Skidmore’s departure makes it all the more noticeable that despite trying to maintain a veneer of climate rhetoric, no Scottish Tory MSP has ever taken such a principled stance.
“The decisions we make today will have a huge impact for generations to come, and the Tories are knowingly walking us into a historic disaster. What could be more damaging than annual oil and gas licensing rounds?
“Every Tory politician with even a shred of concern for our climate must join Chris Skidmore in opposing this destructive bill.”
Mr Sunak is already facing a byelection in Wellingborough caused by Tory MP Peter Bone being forced out by a recall petition following alleged sexual misconduct.
The Tories lost four Westminster by-elections in 2023, and further losses will deepen the sense of gloom among MPs as they face a general election in the autumn.
Mr Skidmore’s majority of Labour at the 2019 general election was 11,220, putting it well within range of Keir Starmer’s party given the polls and by-election gains last year.
Labour previously held the seat until it turned Tory in 2010.
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