Israeli settlers put up Israeli flags on a Palestinian sturucture on the outskirts of the occupied West Bank city of Beit Sahour, August 14, 2026
WORDS are not enough against all of Israel’s “atrocities,” campaigners warned today after Ed Miliband criticised Tel Aviv’s new illegal settlement plans.
The Foreign Secretary said Britain would not “stand back and accept the destruction of the two-state solution,” as he pledged to set out measures in response to Israeli policies in the coming weeks.
He said Britain had been clear publicly and privately about its opposition to the E1 settlement project, which he said risks endangering a two-state solution by separating the West Bank from East Jerusalem.
“I made clear to the Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar that the Israeli government must halt E1 plans immediately, retract the tender and stop all settlement expansion,” he said.
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The Foreign Office also summoned Israel’s charge d’affaires to set out Britain’s “profound objection” to the new settlement plans.
Mr Miliband said: “This Israeli government’s publication of a tender for the E1 settlement project is an unacceptable and destructive act.
“All settlements damage that prospect and are a flagrant breach of international law.”
He said the expansion of settlements and “attempts to create irreversible divisions” on the ground threaten peace and prospects for a Palestinian state.
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But Palestine Solidarity Campaign deputy director Ryvka Barnard said that while Mr Miliband is right to condemn the settlement project, his words “must be matched by decisive action against all of Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians.”
“That doesn’t just mean action against Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank, but also against its ongoing genocide in Gaza and the apartheid system it imposes across historic Palestine,” she told the Star.
“Unless truly comprehensive sanctions are imposed on Israel – including a full arms embargo and a ban on all trade that aids or assists Israel’s unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory – Andy Burnham’s government risks falling to the same fate as Keir Starmer’s: plummeting support and a disgraceful legacy.”
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Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar hit back at Mr Miliband’s comments and its “patronising tone,” writing on X: “There have been no new decisions regarding development in E1. The decision was made in 2025.
“The tender process has been underway for several months, with certain tender documents published only in recent days.”
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People stage a pro-Palestinian demonstration and call on Labour Party leader Andy Burnham, who is preparing to take office as prime minister, to impose comprehensive sanctions on Israel, in London, United Kingdom on July 18, 2026. [Raşid Necati Aslım – Anadolu Agency
Britain’s new government has rejected calls from 80 MPs and peers to recognise Israel’s genocide in Gaza, impose a full arms embargo and introduce comprehensive sanctions against the occupation state.
The decision has intensified criticism of Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, whose first statements in office raised expectations of a break with the policies of former Prime Minister Keir Starmer but have so far produced little substantive change.
In a cross-party letter led by Labour MP Kim Johnson, members of the House of Commons and House of Lords urged Burnham to recognise the findings of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, which concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
I'm one of 80 MPs & Peers calling on the PM to:
– Recognise the UN’s findings on genocide & implement the ICJ ruling in full – Impose sanctions including a full arms embargo – Ban trade that supports Israel’s illegal settlements
The parliamentarians called on the government to “fundamentally change its position” by supporting Palestinian rights and taking steps to prevent further Israeli violations of international law.
They also urged ministers to implement the International Court of Justice’s ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation, impose comprehensive sanctions, introduce a complete arms embargo and prohibit trade in goods and services linked to illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
However, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office declined to endorse any of the demands.
The rejection follows criticism of Miliband’s first statement as foreign secretary, in which he referred explicitly to “Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine” but described Israel’s assault on Gaza only as “conflict in the Middle East”.
British governments and senior ministers have repeatedly made legal and political judgements about Russia’s conduct without waiting for a final international court ruling. The UK described Russia’s invasion as illegal from its outset and accused Russian forces of committing war crimes.
In June 2026, the Commission reported that Israeli authorities and forces continued to commit genocide and other atrocity crimes, including through the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children.
The UN findings are part of a much broader body of expert assessments.
Amnesty International concluded in December 2024 that Israel had committed and was continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem reached the same conclusion in its July 2025 report, Our Genocide. The International Association of Genocide Scholars later declared that Israel’s policies and actions met the legal definition of genocide under the Genocide Convention.
Despite these findings, the British government has maintained that only a court can make a genocide determination.
During a House of Lords debate following the UN Commission’s September 2025 report, ministers insisted that the government would not describe Israel’s actions as genocide until a competent national or international court had ruled on the issue.
Burnham had sought to distance himself from Starmer’s record before entering Downing Street. He acknowledged that Labour “got it wrong” in its initial response to Gaza and admitted that Britain had been too slow to call for a ceasefire.
However, he stopped short of recognising genocide, arguing that the matter should be left to international courts. Green Party deputy leader Mothin Ali accused Burnham of hiding behind the courts when discussing Israel while showing no similar hesitation in condemning Russia.
Ali warned that the duty under the Genocide Convention is to prevent genocide rather than wait until the destruction has been completed and formally adjudicated. Recognising the evidence, he argued, would also raise questions about Britain’s arms exports, surveillance cooperation and wider support for Israel.
UK newspapers have already published 63 editorials this year calling for more oil and gas extraction in the North Sea, according to Carbon Brief analysis.
The national outlets, including the Sun, the Daily Telegraph and the Times, argue that the nation “needs” more North Sea drilling to provide “home-sourced oil and gas” amid a “full-blown energy crisis”.
These newspapers seek to blame energy secretary Ed Miliband’s “net-zero crusade” for curbing UK fossil-fuel production – despite supplies dwindling for decades before he took the role.
The push for North Sea drilling in newspaper editorials – considered a publication’s formal “voice” – is part of a wider rejection of net-zero policies by the UK’s right-leaning press.
Figures ranging from ex-Labour prime minister Tony Blair to hard-right Reform UK leader Nigel Farage have repeated similar arguments that more drilling will “boost” the UK economy.
Even US president Donald Trump has weighed in, attributing, in part, the resignation of Keir Starmer as UK prime minister to him “fail[ing] badly” on North Sea oil.
Despite these claims, experts say trying to extract the last barrels of domestic oil and gas would have no impact on people’s energy bills and very little effect on energy security.
More drilling
North Sea oil and gas production is a highly politically charged issue in the UK, especially under the current Labour government.
When Labour won the general election in 2024, the new government committed to a “phased and responsible” transition away from fossil-fuel extraction in the North Sea.
As part of this pledge, it ruled out issuing new exploration licences for oil and gas. Since then, the government has allowed some “tiebacks”, where new drilling is undertaken close to existing sites.
Roughly 90% of the fossil fuels that are likely to be extracted in the North Sea have already been burned. North Sea oil and gas extraction was, therefore, already on a clear downward trajectory long before Labour came to power, having dropped 75% between 2000 and 2024.
Nevertheless, many newspapers have relentlessly called for more oil and gas production, framing the Labour policy as “self-destructive” and compromised by “green ideology”.
This has ramped up significantly in 2026. Just six months into the year, newspapers have already published 63 pro-North Sea editorials, according to analysis by Carbon Brief. This is more than double the number published in 2025, as shown in the figure below.
Cumulative number of UK newspaper editorials supporting more fossil-fuel extraction in the North Sea in 2025 (blue) and January-June 2026 (red). Source: Carbon Brief analysis.
Right-leaning newspapers have led this campaign, with the Sun alone publishing 25 editorials, while the Daily Telegraph and the Times have published 10 each.
‘Full-blown energy crisis’
The biggest surge in pro-North Sea drilling editorials came in March, as the Iran war escalated and a global energy crisis began to take shape. Newspapers published 24 such editorials that month, despite the crisis largely arising from the world’s reliance on fossil fuels.
The Daily Express said the UK needed more “home-sourced oil and gas” and the Daily Mail highlighted the “perverse limit on domestic fossil-fuel production”.
As the weeks progressed, the Sun lamented price rises and potential fuel shortages, proposing North Sea drilling as a solution to the “full-blown energy crisis”.
Yet, UK oil and gas is sold by private companies on the open market at international rates. This means UK consumers have no particular right to the fuels or control over the prices they are bought for.
The Sun claimed – without evidence – that if the North Sea had been prioritised, the UK “might just have the cheapest electricity in the world”. It also said net-zero “forces us to spend billions” on imports.
In fact, the UK’s high energy prices are primarily the result of its reliance on gas to generate electricity.
The nation is reliant on oil and gas imports, in part, because the North Sea is a “mature basin” that saw its output collapse long before the UK even had a net-zero target.
Renewables and low-carbon technologies – often dismissed by the same newspapers – are expected to have a far greater impact on cutting imports than new drilling ever could.
Miliband’s ‘crusade’
Much of the criticism by these newspapers of Labour’s North Sea stance is tied to their highly personal criticism of Miliband. Of the 63 editorials arguing for more drilling, nearly three-quarters also attacked him as a “net-zero zealot” on a “green crusade”.
The Times said the energy and net-zero secretary was pursuing a “masochistic policy” by not expanding North Sea drilling and that he had “cloaked his zealotry in spurious rationality”.
This all fits with a broader trend that has seen right-leaning newspapers launch frequent, personal attacks on Miliband.
In the roughly two years since Labour won the election, giving the government a clear mandate for its net-zero policies, there have been around 230 editorials criticising Miliband.
(These have redoubled in recent days, amid rumours that he may be made chancellor under Andy Burnham, if the new Makerfield MP becomes the next prime minister, as is widely expected.)
Such attacks have increasingly spilled over into politics. Conservative shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho has accused Miliband of “fanaticism” and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has even likened him to a “Nigerian military dictator”.
The newspapers have also interpreted any support for North Sea drilling as a rebuke of Miliband. Both the Sun and the Daily Telegraph welcomed an essay by Blair, in which he argued that “we must…use what is left of our North Sea oil and gas resources”.
The Sun heralded Blair as Labour’s “most successful election winner” and said he “nailed the chief mistakes” of the current government, including:
“Allowing Ed Miliband free rein on net-zero – especially the banning of North Sea drilling.”
Several of the newspapers have also thrown their support behind the Conservative party, as it frames itself as an anti-net-zero, pro-fossil fuel alternative to Labour.
The Daily Mail described Badenoch’s proposal to drill more in the North Sea as a “concrete plan”, while the Sun – in an echo of Trump’s slogan – has simply urged her to “drill, Kemi, drill”.
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Drax’s subsidy is contingent on generating electricity from biomass pellets from waste or low-value wood from sustainable forests. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Exclusive: Cross-party group ‘deeply concerned’ power plant may have misled ministers and regulators over source of wood pellets
Ed Miliband is under pressure from MPs to suspend subsidies worth £2m a day paid to the owner of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire after court documents cast doubt on the company’s sustainability claims.
A cross-party group of 14 MPs and peers have called on the energy minister to halt the subsidies for Britain’s biggest power plant while the financial watchdog investigates the company’s claims about how it sources the millions of tonnes of wood pellets burned to generate electricity.
In a letter, seen by the Guardian, the politicians said they were “deeply concerned” that Drax may have been given “substantial billpayer subsidy” while the company “may have knowingly and consistently concealed information” about the green credentials of its wood sources.
The FTSE 250 owner of the Drax power plant gets about £2m a day in renewable energy subsidies, paid by consumers, on the condition it generates electricity from biomass pellets made from waste or low-value wood from sustainable forests.
Drax, Britain’s single biggest source of carbon emissions, imports millions of tonnes of wood pellets from across the Atlantic every year and is projected to receive £11bn in subsidies by the end of 2027.
The letter was sent to Miliband after “explosive” employment tribunal documents revealed that senior executives at Drax had privately raised concerns about the accuracy of its public sustainability claims, after allegations that it was burning wood from some of Canada’s most environmentally important woodlands.
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Biomass provided almost a fifth of the UK’s electricity for the first time during one morning in September when renewable energy resources were particularly low. Photograph: Lee Smith/Reuters
Giant biomass plant reveals burning of wood pellets made 9% of UK’s electricity in July, its largest ever monthly share
Britain’s reliance on burning wood to generate electricity has reached record highs, even as the government moves to curb the controversial use of biomass power.
The latest figures supplied by the owner of the huge Drax biomass plant in North Yorkshire have revealed that power generated from burning biomass wood pellets provided 9% of the UK’s electricity in July, its largest ever monthly share.
Weeks later, biomass provided almost a fifth (17%) of the UK’s electricity for the first time during one morning in September when renewable energy resources were particularly low.
Britain’s record reliance on biomass generation has reached new heights as the government set out its plans to dramatically reduce the controversial energy source under a new subsidy agreement with the FTSE 250 owner of the Drax power plant.
Under the deal, Drax will continue to earn more than £1m a day from energy bills in exchange for burning wood pellets at its power plant. However, it will only be supported to run just over a quarter of the time, down sharply from almost two-thirds of the time currently.
When the deal was agreed in February, the energy minister, Michael Shanks, said the company’s subsidies had been cut because it “simply did not deliver a good enough deal for billpayers and enabled Drax to make unacceptably large profits”.
Drax has also faced a backlash from green groups amid criticism of the company’s claims that it sources wood only from “well‐managed, sustainable forests” to manufacture the pellets burned at its power plant.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Israeli settlers put up Israeli flags on a Palestinian sturucture on the outskirts of the occupied West Bank city of Beit Sahour, August 14, 2026
