Prime Minister Andy Burnham speaks to staff at the met office in Exeter, to discuss the UK’s ongoing response to extreme heat, wildfires and drought, August 14, 2026Burnham urged to stand up to the fossil fuel giants and reject plans to drill Britain’s largest untapped oil fields
PRIME MINISTER Andy Burnham was urged to stand up to profiteering fossil fuel giants and reject plans to drill Britain’s largest untapped oil field as consultations on them drew to a close today.
Labour faces a key environmental test as the final decision over the future of the Rosebank oil field, which lies about 80 miles west of Shetland, is left with ministers.
Production at both Rosebank and Jackdaw had been approved by the previous Conservative government, but those decisions were quashed after a legal challenge from Greenpeace, leaving the government to decide whether or not drilling should go ahead.
The decision on the two projects comes after a summer that has seen soaring temperatures and devastating wildfires in both Britain and Europe.
Environmentalists warn that allowing the development of the Jackdaw gas field off the coast of Aberdeen, whose consultation ended last week, would produce more than 250 million tonnes of CO2 — equivalent to 70 per cent of Britain’s annual emissions.
Greenpeace campaigner Maja Darlington said: “The PM wants to be pragmatic, but there is nothing pragmatic about watching communities be battered by climate chaos while the Prime Minister flirts with expanding the very industry driving it.
“More drilling means more heatwaves, more droughts, more wildfires, and more suffering for the communities Burnham represents. The climate crisis is already hitting working people hardest — firefighters on the front line, bus drivers exposed to inhumane heat, nurses collapsing on the job.
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