CRUMBRIA: 25.03.2026
THREE Cumbria Labour MPs have voted against more North Sea drilling for oil and gas.
Barrow’s Michelle Scrogerm, Penrith & Solway’s Martyr Campbell-Savours and Carlisle’s Julie Spins all faithfully lined up behind the Government and Net Zero fanatic, Ed Millibrain.
Saint Tim Farron, for the Lib Dems, and Tosh MacAlister, Labour, were elsewhere for yesterday’s vote.
They weren’t needed.
Labour and friends easily crushed the Tory motion by 297 votes to 108.
The defeat means the status quo rolls on.
Britain pays someone else for oil and gas and then virtuously congratulates itself for not getting its hands dirty.
Tory MP Andrew Bowie called that insane, telling Labour: “They would rather we get gas from other countries at a higher cost and with 15 times the emissions of our own supply, leaving us more exposed to price spikes.”
Labour’s argued that going into new fields would not shield customers from oil and gas shocks because “the price is set internationally.”
There’s reports we have already tapped 93% of what is there and it is time for transition, not more rigs.
Within a decade, there are concerns Britain could be importing 82% of its gas and be missing out on £25bn in tax receipts.
The Lib Dems piled in. Pippa Heylings MP, South Cambridgeshire, said: “The truth is that expanding oil and gas production in the North sea…would do nothing to cut people’s energy bills.”
Carla Denyer MP, Greens, added: “There is simply no case for opening new oil and gas wells in the North Sea.”
180 out of 283 active oil and gas fields in the North Sea are expected to cease production by 2030. Expect a big hit to jobs.
Norway reportedly drilled nearly 50 new wells last year.
It looks like many MPs are banking on lots more wind turbines. Could more be coming to the hills, fields, and coasts of Cumbria?
Richard Tice MP, Reform UK, asked: “Who is more dangerous to the British economy — the Secretary of State for Energy or the Chancellor of the Exchequer?”
Yesterday’s opposition day debate was, of course, a Punch & Judy show by the Tories designed to make the Government look bad as oil and gas panic dominates the news.
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