Incoming British Prime Minister Andy Burnham Will Fast-Track New North Sea Oil Drilling Projects – Is Already Facing Pushback From His ‘Net-Zero’ Labour Party Members

Drill, Andy, drill.

From scandal to crisis and back, failing Keir Starmer lost the confidence of the voters, the support of the press, and even of his own Labour MPs.

He finally resigned to his party leadership, and lost his brief and troubled premiership.

Andy Burham resigned as Manchester mayor, ran in a by-election to become the MP for Makerfield, was ‘crowned’ the new Labour leader – and on Monday, he becomes the 59^th Prime Minister of Britain.

He is widely expected to become as unpopular as Starmer in record time, since the Globalist, suicidal core policies will mostly remain the same.

But, as in the run-up to his inauguration, Burnham has been caught in the act of doing the most unexpected thing: taking a correct decision that is already very unpopular with the left wing of his Labour party.

Andy Burnham set to announce plans for new North Sea oil and gas drilling in blow to Ed Milibandhttps://t.co/YKxJSFaCcO

— GB News (@GBNEWS) July 18, 2026

Today, it arises that Burnham will announce plans to drill for gas and oil in the North Sea in a break with Labour’s manifesto promise.

The incoming prime minister is understood to be preparing the announcement for when he enters No 10 on Monday.

The Telegraph reported:

“However, the decision is likely to prove controversial with colleagues such as Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, who remain committed to Labour’s 2024 pledge not to issue new drilling licences.

The announcement is likely to focus on Jackdaw, a Shell-owned gas field 150 miles east of Aberdeen, and Rosebank, an oil and gas field north-west of Shetland owned by Adura, a joint venture between Norwegian company Equinor and Shell.

Under the Conservatives, regulators approved drilling at Rosebank and Jackdaw in 2022 and 2023, but those contracts were overturned in 2025 following a legal challenge brought by Greenpeace.

The new policy, first reported by the BBC, will form part of a series of measures from Mr. Burnham, including plans to take water and energy companies under public control and introduce a new council house-building program.”

‘We’ve already seen reports of Ed Miliband growing increasingly frustrated that he is not going to get that top job of Chancellor.’

Political correspondent at The Sun Tom Scotson analyses the rumours of who will fill the key positions in Andy Burnham’s cabinet. pic.twitter.com/4sNoFSQDR5

— GB News (@GBNEWS) July 18, 2026

BBC reported:

“While details of the oil and gas plans are not clear, the incoming prime minister is expected to uphold the manifesto commitment. One source said Burnham might pitch this as a significant change of direction but said any overt support for completely new licenses is not on the cards.

Rosebank and Jackdaw both already have licenses to exclusively explore for oil and gas. The decision currently under consideration is whether to give approval to produce oil and gas there. If given the go ahead, that would not break the manifesto commitment on licenses.

The ongoing legal processes around Rosebank and Jackdaw mean Burnham will also not be able to explicitly announce their approval, but he will likely nod to it in his first speech as prime minister on Monday. This decision will instead effectively fall to the new, unannounced energy secretary.

But the Labour leader could pledge to speed up existing plans to drill more in the North Sea. Many oil and gas licenses already approved in recent years remain largely undeveloped due to a variety of reasons.”

Read more:

BRITISH POWER PLAYS: Outgoing PM Keir Starmer Reportedly Sabotaging Leftist Successor Andy Burnham at Every Step