Tories And Reform Under Fire For 'Trumpian' Obsession With Oil And Gas Drilling Even As UK Roasts

Climate campaigners have accused the Conservatives and Reform UK of pushing for more drilling in the North Sea even as the country suffers through a major heatwave.

Red heat health alerts are in place across much of England and Wales, with school closures and rail operators advising against non-essential travel.

Temperatures are expected to reach around 37C on Wednesday and authorities have expressed concern about the risk to life. 

The Met Office has warned that human-caused climate change – caused by burning fossil fuels – is making intense heatwaves more frequent.

But the Conservatives and Reform UK are expected to vote against the UK’s Seventh Carbon Budget on Wednesday afternoon.

This will put a legally binding cap on the amount of climate pollution Britain can safely release to stay on track for net zero by 2050.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has frequently pushed for her party to abandon net zero in favour of drilling in the North Sea to ease the pressure on the UK’s energy supplies.

She also spoke alongside Trump’s energy secretary and former fossil fuel executive Chris Wright on Tuesday as he encouraged the UK to “reverse course” on net zero.

They both appeared at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London on Wednesday, which is known as the “anti-woke Davos”.

Reform has vowed to scrap all “net stupid zero” policies if it ever gets into office as part of its plan to “make people better off” and boost jobs, particularly in the Scottish oil sector.

But campaigners warned pushing for more oil and gas was a short-sighted mistake.

Robert Palmer, deputy director of Uplift, said: “The Conservative Party’s Trumpian obsession with oil and gas is blinding it to the reality of climate change affecting people right now.”

He added: “The science is clear, there can be no new drilling if we want to stay within safe climate targets.

“Yet Kemi Badenoch’s response is to abandon those targets and drill even more.

“Pushing ahead with this reckless approach will leave ordinary people – and future generations – paying the price, through more extreme heat, more damaging floods, and the rising costs that come with climate breakdown.

“Either Kemi Badenoch believes, like Trump, that climate change is a ‘con job’ or she is simply willing to ignore the consequences. More drilling will not cut our energy bills, it will only increase profits for oil and gas companies while making the climate crisis worse. That is profoundly irresponsible.”

Charlotte Howell-Jones, co-director of Parents for Future UK also warned that this heatwave proves climate crisis is already impacting the younger generations and is “no longer a distant threat.”

She said: “It is already affecting our children: classrooms becoming too hot to learn in, missed school days, cancelled sports and fewer chances to play outside. And it affects nighttime too, because it’s too hot to sleep.

“What is most alarming is that we know this is not the end of it. Unless we act, temperatures will keep rising, records will keep being broken, and the consequences will shape the world our children and grandchildren live through.

“As a parent, it is hard to understand how Kemi Badenoch can pursue policies that would make a bad situation worse. Yet the Conservatives seem unwilling – or unable – to acknowledge the damage climate change is already causing, so committed are they to protecting the oil and gas industry that profits from it.

“They are completely out of touch with the reality facing millions of parents, for whom a heatwave like this brings not just disruption, but anxiety about the future their children will face.”

The backlash comes after US president Donald Trump also used Keir Starmer’s resignation on Monday to attack Labour for “messing up energy” and not drilling in the North Sea.

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