Jackdaw North Sea gasfield to get go-ahead in blow to climate campaigners

‘There is a resource there,’ said Andy Burnham. ‘When people are struggling - you can’t ignore that.’ Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

The Jackdaw gasfield will be given the go-ahead on Wednesday, signalling Andy Burnham’s commitment to the North Sea fossil fuel industry and threatening to trigger a row with climate campaigners and Labour MPs.

Miatta Fahnbulleh and John Healey, the energy secretary and chancellor respectively, will make the announcement from Aberdeen on Wednesday morning after more than a year of deliberations over whether doing so would violate the UK’s climate commitments.