Afternoon summary
Labour has said Rishi Sunak should take the blame for escalating costs at HS2 because he was responsible for monitoring spending while he was at the Treasury. (See 1.25pm.) The party challenged Sunak as five Labour metro mayors urged Sunak not to scrap, delay or scale back HS2 as it would “leave swathes of the north with Victorian transport infrastructure that is unfit for purpose”. Other political and business leaders in the north of England have also expressed alarm about the prospect of the HS2 link from Birmingham to Manchester being cancelled.
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has said it is “flippant” to dismiss her immigration speech yesterday as motivated by the desire to boost her standing in a future Tory leadership contest – but without ruling out that she might be a candidate. (See 3.04pm.)
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Starmer says Labour won't revoke Rosebank oilfield licence because giving investors stability good for growth
Keir Starmer has restated his promise not to revoke the licence allowing the Rosebank oil and gas field development to go ahead if Labour wins the next election.
As Mark Sweney and Matthew Taylor report, the decision by the North Sea Transition Authority to approve the development today has outraged environmentalists.
The field has the potential to produce 500m barrels of oil in its lifetime, which when burned would emit as much carbon dioxide as running 56 coal-fired power stations for a year, and the Green party MP Caroline Lucas has called the move “the greatest act of environmental vandalism” in her lifetime.
In an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson for his Political Thinking podcast, Starmer said he would not revoke the licence because he wanted people investing in the UK to have certainty.
Asked if Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate change and net zero, was wrong to say developing Rosebank would “drive a coach and horses through our climate commitments”, Starmer replied:
He’s right that we need to have this transition, but I’m mindful of the fact that if there’s one thing that has killed growth in the last 13 years – and it has been killed – it’s the chopping and changing lack of strategic thinking.
And therefore, as a matter of principle, we will accept, as it were, the baseline that we inherit from the government if we win that election. And – if I’m not getting ahead of myself – that’s why we’ve been very clear that we won’t revoke that licence.
Asked if he was saying, not that he can’t revoke the licence, but that he won’t, Starmer replied:
It’s won’t and it’s deliberate and it is in order to ensure that we have the stability we desperately need in our economy.
Further excerpts from the interview are due to be released tomorrow.
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