A decision on approving the controversial Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea is to be delayed until later this autumn, with the Greens accusing Labour of hiding their position before the crucial Holborn and St Pancras byelection.
Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, had been poised to give her recommendation to approve the Jackdaw field off the coast of Aberdeen next week.
However, multiple Whitehall sources say the decision is not expected to be made in the remaining few days before the House of Commons goes into recess on Tuesday for party conference season.
The delay means the announcement is unlikely to come before Holborn and St Pancras constituents vote in a high-profile byelection on 8 October, in which the Green party leader Zack Polanski is the candidate vying against Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali in Keir Starmer’s former seat.
Polanski has criticised the government over signals that it will press ahead with Jackdaw despite the hottest ever summer caused by the climate crisis.
After his selection, Polanski said Labour has “started the campaign with an act of dishonesty and betrayal”.
“They are clearly going to allow new drilling in the North Sea but want to keep it under wraps during a byelection where they know the public want tougher action on climate, not backsliding.
“Labour talks about change, but this is change for the worse. We have a climate crisis but Labour is taking the side of fossil fuel corporations, and the voters have a clear choice in this byelection between action on climate change or shortsighted rowing backwards.”
The delay also means Andy Burnham could avoid controversy over Jackdaw at the Labour party conference in Liverpool at the end of the month.
Andrew Bowie, the shadow energy secretary, said delays in approving Jackdaw would mean it takes longer to increase UK domestic production in the North Sea.
In a letter to the prime minister published on social media, Bowie asked Burnham to confirm “suggestions that you are about to delay the decision on the Jackdaw gasfield until after the conference recess and Holborn and St Pancras byelection”.
He added: “If this is the case, it would be nothing short of you placing the interests of the Labour party before the interests of Great Britain.”
A separate decision is also pending on the Rosebank oilfield project.
Environmental campaigners have called for both projects to be abandoned, while the US president, Donald Trump, has urged the prime minister to open them.
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Labour’s manifesto committed to a ban on new drilling licences in the North Sea, but the companies behind Jackdaw and Rosebank are seeking environmental approval for existing licences.
Last week, a spokesperson for the energy department said: “The North Sea remains a vital national asset, supporting jobs, growth and the UK’s energy security. We are clear that oil and gas will continue to play an important role in our energy system for decades to come, alongside transitioning to clean power to protect jobs and tackle the climate crisis.”
The companies resubmitted their applications for environmental approval earlier this year. Granting those permits would not violate Labour’s manifesto commitment not to issue new oil or gas licences, but many of the party’s MPs are opposed to the projects entirely.
Under the process, the energy secretary gives her recommendation to the North Sea Transition Authority, which then later issues a formal approval.
Consultations on Jackdaw and Rosebank, which the industry says will provide 10% of the UK’s oil and gas output at their peak, closed last month, and Fahnbulleh has since been considering her response.
Campaigners say the fields would produce as much as £336bn worth of damage to the economy as a result of the carbon pollution from the oil and gas produced.
Both fields have licences to operate, but environmental approval was rescinded after a judge ruled the companies running them – Shell and the Norwegian firm Equinor – needed to account for the carbon emissions that would be created by burning the oil and gas they produce.
