Prime Minister Andy Burnham has reaffirmed his commitment to tackling climate change, rejecting pressure to dilute Labour’s green agenda as households face another increase in energy bills.
“There was no change at all” to his position on climate policy, Mr Burnham said, after the Ofgem energy price cap increased by 4 per cent on Wednesday to its highest level in three years.
Opposition parties have blamed rising energy costs on green levies and the UK’s drive towards Net Zero. The Conservatives and Reform UK have both pledged to scale back climate commitments as they seek to address mounting pressure on household finances.
Mr Burnham, however, said he continued to stand by comments he made a decade ago, when he said a Labour government under his leadership would “never turn our back on either our duty to tackle climate change or the prospects offered by the green economy”.
Asked whether that commitment remained unchanged, the Prime Minister told reporters during a visit to South Wales: “It completely stands.”
He argued that the longer-term solution to high household bills was to reduce the influence of gas prices on the electricity market, rather than retreat from investment in renewable energy.
“I think if we’re going to get people’s energy bills down, we have to work towards the day when we can de-link gas and electricity pricing.
“That would be one of the biggest moves we could make to support people with the cost of living, and that is linked to renewables and building out renewables.”
The government is developing plans aimed at changing the relationship between gas and electricity prices, which ministers see as a way of reducing consumers’ exposure to volatility in wholesale gas markets.
Mr Burnham also used the visit to highlight the transformation of Port Talbot, describing it as “one of the biggest green industrial transition projects in the UK”.
The South Wales steelworks, where blast furnaces closed in 2024, is being redeveloped around electric arc furnaces as part of a transition towards lower-carbon steel production.
“This is where we’ve got to turn our thinking – to future industry that is clean powered, and it’s exciting when you start to think about things in those terms,” Mr Burnham said.
“I led Greater Manchester with a carbon-neutral ambition of 2038… So, you know, people can look back at my record, and none of that changes.”
The Prime Minister is nevertheless facing a separate test over the future of oil and gas production in the North Sea, with ministers expected to decide next month whether the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields should proceed.
Environmental groups have urged the government to reject the projects, arguing that new North Sea development is inconsistent with its climate objectives.
The oil and gas industry and opposition politicians have taken the opposite position, arguing that approving the fields would support thousands of jobs and contribute to energy security and lower bills.
The previous Conservative government approved production at both fields, but those decisions were subsequently quashed following a legal challenge by Greenpeace. Labour ministers must now reconsider whether development should proceed, with decisions expected in September.
Mr Burnham has sought to position himself between the competing arguments, reiterating that he intends to take a “pragmatic” approach to the North Sea.
Speaking to the Financial Times, he pointed to environmental campaigner and renewable energy entrepreneur Dale Vince, who he said had adopted a pragmatic position during an appearance on BBC Newsnight.
Mr Vince argued that if the UK were able to price its own North Sea oil and gas domestically, there would be an economic case for allowing projects such as Rosebank and Jackdaw because they could contribute to lower energy prices.
The debate reflects a broader tension at the heart of Labour’s energy strategy: how to maintain its commitment to decarbonisation while addressing an immediate affordability problem that has become increasingly politically difficult to ignore.
For Mr Burnham, the challenge is to convince households that the transition towards cleaner energy can ultimately reduce costs rather than add to them — while demonstrating that decisions over domestic fossil fuel production can be made on economic as well as environmental grounds.
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