'You're destroying your country!' Donald Trump slams Britain's eco drive as he hails UK's 'beautiful, clean oil'

He said: "The UK has one of the best [oil] fields anywhere in the world and you don't use it.

"You have this beautiful, clean, really incredible oil and gas and it is sitting there. The value that is being wasted in this country is so sad."

According to the North Sea Transition Authority (NTSA), the Government Regulator, new areas of the North Sea are thought to be able to yield 15.8 billion barrels of oil and gas.

The figure was revealed in a report by the NTSA which included surveys made under the last round of licences issued in 2022, before Energy Secretary Ed Miliband banned the exploration for new oil and gas.

Mr Trump condemned the current energy situation in the UK, saying: "Your energy costs are amongst the highest in the world, it's crazy."

However, he said big oil companies are "rebuffed" and it has been made "impossible for anyone to drill environmentally and taxation wise".

A windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas firms, named the Energy Profits Levy (EPL), was introduced first in 2022 and had been set to finish at the end of 2025.

However, it was extended multiple times, last by the Labour Government in November last year, and as a result, sits at a 38 per cent tax which is due to remain in place until March 2030.

In October, more than 110 companies signed a letter urging the Government to end the EPL, fearing the consequences it would have on the industry.

Offshore Energies UK, an industry association, estimated the most recent increase will put 35,000 jobs at risk and result in a loss of £13billion to the UK economy between 2025 to 2029.

As well as condemning the lack of action in the North Sea, the President also slated the UK attempt to move towards green energy.

In particular, he slated the continued construction of wind farms.

He told GB News that when he visits the country, he sees "gorgeous fields being destroyed by windmills" which "lose millions of dollars".

Mr Trump also blasted the idea of using climate change as an excuse to stop drilling for oil and instead using renewable energy, which he called "beautiful words but a disaster".

He added: "When they talk about the climate, the whole thing is a hoax."

Discussing people's belief in the "hoax", he added: "The UK is one of the worst in the world. They believe in this nonsense, this fictions."

At the beginning of this year, the President signed an executive order to remove the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change.