Donald Trump today lashed out at Labour’s Net Zero drive in his latest attack on Britain.
The US President questioned why the UK ‘refuses to open’ the North Sea to new oil and gas extraction while Europe is ‘desperate for energy’.
He implored Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband to copy his ‘drill, baby, drill’ mantra, saying it was ‘absolutely crazy that they don’t’.
Mr Trump also called on the UK to stop building ‘windmills’ in his scathing criticism of Britain’s ‘tragic’ efforts to switch to renewable energy.
In another explosive post on his Truth Social site, the US President wrote: ‘Europe is desperate for Energy, and yet the United Kingdom refuses to open North Sea Oil, one of the greatest fields in the World. Tragic!!!
‘Aberdeen should be booming. Norway sells its North Sea Oil to the U.K. at double the price. They are making a fortune.
‘U.K., which is better situated on the North Sea for purposes of energy than Norway, should, DRILL, BABY, DRILL!!! It is absolutely crazy that they don’t… AND, NO MORE WINDMILLS! President DJT’
Mr Trump, whose increasingly-disastrous Iran war has caused global oil and gas prices to rocket, has been a regular critic of Britain’s Net Zero agenda.
Donald Trump lashed out at Labour’s Net Zero drive in his latest attack on Britain
In another explosive post on his Truth Social site, the US President wrote: ‘Europe is desperate for Energy, and yet the United Kingdom refuses to open North Sea Oil’
The US President has frequently told Sir Keir to ramp up the production of fossil fuels in order to cut energy bills.
But senior Labour figures – including the PM – have recently begun to hit back with criticism of the impact of Mr Trump’s own actions on UK households.
Sir Keir last week said he was ‘fed up’ with the effect of Mr Trump’s conflict in the Middle East, which is threatening to worsen the cost-of-living crisis for Brits.
The PM also appeared to draw a comparison between the US President and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
‘I’m fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy, businesses’ bills go up and down on energy because of the actions of Putin or Trump across the world,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has hit out at the ‘folly’ of America’s actions in Iran and its impact on families.
She said: ‘Obviously no sensible person is a supporter of the Iranian regime.
‘But to start a conflict without being clear what the objectives are and not being clear about how you are going to get out of it, I do think that is a folly.
‘And it is one that is affecting families here in the UK but also families in the US and around the world.’
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said the UK has suffered the sharpest cut to growth forecasts of the largest global economies after the conflict in the Middle East raised the prospect of a ‘major energy crisis’.
The influential financial body said the spike in energy prices caused by the war will help push UK inflation towards 4 per cent – double the Bank of England’s target – and contribute to higher costs for households.
Mr Trump implored Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband to copy his ‘drill, baby, drill’ mantra, saying it was ‘absolutely crazy that they don’t’.
Mr Miliband has banned the issuing of new North Sea oil and gas licences as part of his bid to decarbonise the UK’s electricity grid by 2030.
But the Energy Secretary is under mounting pressure to soften his stance on the UK’s untapped oil and gas reserves in the wake of the Iran crisis.
A number of Labour MPs and trade union bosses are calling on him to allow new drilling off Britain’s coastline as households face up to the prospect of higher bills.
Mr Miliband has insisted the Iran crisis demonstrates why Britain must ‘go further and faster’ on achieving his Net Zero goals.
‘If there’s one lesson we must learn from this crisis, we cannot keep being on this fossil fuel rollercoaster,’ he told the BBC last month.
‘This is the mission this Government came in with. Some people said it was wrong, some people said it was not the right thing for the country.
‘Unfortunately, very sadly, what this crisis demonstrates yet again – as Russia-Ukraine did – it is absolutely the right thing for the country.’
Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, which campaigns for a ‘rapid and fair transition’ away from oil and gas, said: ‘It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Trump is, to put it mildly, ill-informed when it comes to the North Sea and UK energy policy.
‘The Iran crisis does not change the fact that the UK has burned most of its gas and most of what is left in the North Sea is oil, the majority of which is exported.
‘The price we pay for both oil and gas are determined internationally, so producing it here doesn’t shield us from sky-high prices.
‘New drilling will do nothing to lower bills and have only a marginal impact on our energy security.’
Mr Miliband’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has been contacted for comment.
