Andy Burnham will announce plans for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea on Monday when he becomes prime minister, putting the Labour North Sea Row back at the centre of his first day in office. He is also expected to set out plans on water and energy companies and a council house-building programme.
Burnham is returning to Parliament a month after a by-election and became the sole leadership candidate earlier this week after backing from 379 Labour MPs and all 11 trade unions affiliated to the party. He wants, as he has put it, a dynamic start... focused on delivering tangible change to people's lives as soon as possible
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Labour and the North Sea
The announcement cuts across Labour's 2024 manifesto, which pledged not to issue new licences but to honour existing ones. That promise left room for current production, but not for a fresh push into drilling, and Burnham's move would mark a clear break from the line set out in the campaign document.
The dispute has been running through Labour for months. Some Labour MPs have argued for a more liberal approach, saying the transition away from oil and gas must protect jobs and energy bills. Other Labour figures have backed the existing approach and said expanding renewable energy is the better path for energy security and climate change.
Rosebank and Jackdaw
The policy fight has been sharpened by Rosebank and Jackdaw. The fields were approved in 2022 and 2023 under the then Conservative government, then overturned in 2025 after a legal challenge.
Sir Keir Starmer faced criticism for opposing new drilling. He said new licences did not translate into cheaper bills for consumers and argued that it was more important to transition to renewable sources for secure energy supplies in the future. Ed Miliband had previously described the licence issued to Rosebank as climate vandalism
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Burnham's Monday plan
The North Sea row also drew pressure from beyond Labour. The Conservatives and Reform UK pushed the outgoing prime minister to approve more drilling, calling it reckless that the country was not making use of its own resources at a time when the Iran war had increased energy prices. Donald Trump also made repeated calls to open North Sea oil and said in a social media post before the prime minister's resignation that Starmer had failed badly
on energy policy.
Before the nominations deadline, Burnham received a letter from the oil and gas industry and trade unions calling on him and other Labour MPs to back North Sea oil and gas
. The letter said that support for the industry was a signal that the country remains committed to producing, building and manufacturing, and that government backs the people and places that have powered the country for generations.
Burnham is expected to use Monday to set the tone for his government with more than one policy shift, and the North Sea announcement will show whether he is moving from Labour's manifesto line into a new licensing approach. The immediate question is how far his plans go on drilling, because that will determine whether the change is a symbolic reset or a real change in North Sea policy.
