'He will be seething!' Rachel Reeves risks war with Ed Miliband over plans to speed up North Sea drilling

Peter Stevens
Fri, 17 Apr 2026 04:10:10 +0000

Rachel Reeves has confirmed she is planning to speed up drilling in the North Sea in a bid to soften the blow of the Iran war on energy bills.

The Chancellor said she was looking at ways to "exploit" Britain's oil and gas resources - and was "pretty intensely" working out technical details.

In November, Ms Reeves announced plans for "tie-backs" which would connect new fields to existing drilling infrastructure.

Speaking at International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington DC, the Chancellor said the Government was now looking at ways to speed up those plans, with an announcement expected soon.

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She said: "I announced in the Budget last year that we were going to allow tie-backs.

"What tie-backs are is where you use existing infrastructure to exploit sort of larger geography of oil and gas as the quickest way to bring on-stream more oil and gas," she added.

The move could risk further tensions between Ed Miliband and the Chancellor - though it is understood the Energy Secretary is accepting of tie-backs so long as they do not require new exploration.

Earlier this month Ms Reeves gave her support to both the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil fields, while Mr Miliband is still weighing up their approval.

The Chancellor said she was "very happy" to back both projects as the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have laid failures in Britain's energy security bare.

It was previously reported that Mr Milliband had decided to approve the Jackdaw oil field - but the Department for Energy said the reports were "unfounded" and he was still considering whether or not to approve the licences.

The two Cabinet colleagues have clashed on the North Sea before, with the Energy Secretary previously labelling the Rosebank oil field "climate vandalism".

And in its own election manifesto, Labour pledged not to issue any new exploratory licences for North Sea oil.

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However, Jackdaw had previously been granted a licence under the Conservatives, which could leave the door open to the major unexplored gas field being approved.

Richard Tice, Reform UK's energy spokesman, said: "Reeves and Miliband are increasingly at loggerheads. The Chancellor is backing policies championed by the Reform Party, and Miliband is channelling the Greens.

"But consumers will not care about internal party battles. They just want a fair price put on energy."

And Claire Coutinho, Shadow Energy Secretary, said Mr Miliband would be "seething" that Labour has ended its Carbon Price Support Levy, a tax which artificially raised the price of generating electricity from gas and coal in order to encourage Net Zero investment.

Ms Reeves also said she was working with Mr Miliband to break the link between gas and electricity prices and reduce Britain's exposure to global oil volatility.

"It is quite a big change but is absolutely the right thing to do, especially as electricity makes up an increasing part of our energy mix, and we hope, within the next sort of few days, weeks, to be able to give more details on what that looks like," she said.

Britain has some of the highest energy prices in Europe for both domestic consumers and industry.

Electricity prices in Britain were 23 per cent above the EU average in the first half of 2025, with the ratio of electricity to gas prices in the UK higher than any EU country.

And its energy woes have long provoked the ire of Donald Trump, too.

Just days ago, the President warned of how "Europe is desperate for energy, and yet the United Kingdom refuses to open North Sea oil, one of the greatest fields in the world".

"Tragic!!!" he added. "Aberdeen should be booming. Norway sells its North Sea oil to the UK at double the price.

"They are making a fortune. UK, which is better situated on the North Sea for purposes of energy than Norway, should, DRILL, BABY, DRILL!!! It is absolutely crazy that they don’t."