# Badenoch: Burnham bottled the North Sea call > The Tory leader says a delayed drilling decision is costing Britain jobs, cheaper gas and energy security. - Title: Badenoch: Burnham bottled the North Sea call · Dailymail - Summary: The Tory leader says a delayed drilling decision is costing Britain jobs, cheaper gas and energy security. Badenoch's charge is that Burnham put a… - Keywords: uk politics, energy, north sea, net zero, conservatives, news, entertainment, Badenoch, Burnham, bottled, North, Sea - Source: Dailymail — https://dailymail.com/debate/article-16126961/KEMI-BADENOCH-Andy-Burnham-bottled-chance-jobs-bills.html?ito=1490&ns_campaign=1490&ns_mchannel=rss - Published: 2026-09-13T00:52:34+00:00 - Read time: 3 min - Topics: uk politics, energy, north sea, net zero, conservatives, news, entertainment ## He bottled it again Badenoch opens with a blunt verdict on the Prime Minister: no significant decision yet on defence, on welfare, or on oil and gas. > Andy Burnham has bottled it yet again. ## Promises from the coronation All three were things Burnham said he would sort out during his uncontested run at the Labour leadership. ## The build-up to approval For weeks the expectation was that Burnham would sign off the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields in the North Sea. ## Spinners briefed pragmatism Government aides told journalists the PM would be pragmatic on oil and gas and do the thing Keir Starmer always dodged. > going to be 'pragmatic' on oil and gas ## A speech and a photo-op The announcement was pencilled in for Tuesday at the TUC congress in Brighton, with rumours of an Aberdeen visit to follow. ## Then the delay landed Instead of a decision, Burnham pushed it back. Badenoch argues the reason is obvious to everyone watching. > as sure as night follows day ## A by-election in the way Labour is in a tight race with the Greens in Holborn and St Pancras, which votes at the start of October. ## Starmer's parting gift Rather than sit in Parliament alongside the MPs who moved against him, Starmer quit, handing Burnham a hard vote in Green-friendly London. > all the Labour MPs who had stabbed him in the back ## The diary emptied The TUC speech is off and the Aberdeen trip is shelved, leaving thousands of oil and gas workers in Scotland and beyond in limbo. ## The Tories signed them off Badenoch points out her party approved the Rosebank and Jackdaw licences in government, before the courts got involved. ## The legal challenge Campaigners she calls anti-growth Net Zero obsessives sued, and the Conservatives were still fighting the case when Starmer took office. > The usual anti-growth, Left-wing, Net Zero obsessives launched a legal challenge ## Two years of consultation Starmer and his then climate secretary Ed Miliband opened a consultation that pushed the approvals back a further two years. ## Continuity Keir Her nickname for Burnham is the whole argument in two words: a new leader kicking the same decision into the long grass. > Now Andy Burnham, or 'Continuity Keir', has kicked the decision into the long grass once more. ## Gas by Christmas Had he approved it, Badenoch says Jackdaw gas could be flowing into the grid in time for Christmas, enough for about 1.4 million homes. ## Jobs and tax receipts She counts the cost in less reliance on imports this winter, secure industry jobs, and an estimated £1.4 billion in tax by the end of this Parliament. ## Imports are dirtier Without it, Britain keeps buying costly gas from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which she says carries a bigger carbon footprint than drilling at home. > It is complete madness and does nothing to stop climate change. ## Her alternative plan Drop Net Zero 2050 as a target, drill domestically, scrap the levies and charges loaded onto bills, and cut the regulation around the industry. > It starts with dropping meaningless targets like Net Zero 2050 and focusing on what works. ## Security on three fronts Badenoch frames the stalled licences as a risk to energy security, national security and economic security at once. > Energy security is national security; it's economic security. ## Two by-elections, two meanings On the day Burnham won Makerfield, Douglas Lumsden took Aberdeen South for the Conservatives. She reads one as personal ambition, the other as a vote about oil and gas jobs. > Burnham's victory was about one man's ambition ## Approve them now Her closing demand: for the workers and for anyone who wants deindustrialisation and high bills to end, sign off Rosebank and Jackdaw without further delay. > Burnham must get serious and approve the Rosebank and Jackdaw licences, and do it now. ## Key takeaway Badenoch's charge is that Burnham put a by-election in a Green-leaning London seat ahead of approving Rosebank and Jackdaw.