An oil drilling platform off the coast of Aberdeen. Officials are understood to have looked at a range of proposals in recent weeks. Photograph: Simon Price/Alamy
[Guardian] Exclusive: Energy secretary examining ways to allow oil and gas exploration without breaking manifesto promise
Ed Miliband is planning to encourage drilling in the North Sea despite a manifesto promise not to grant new licences on new parts of the British sea bed.
The energy secretary is looking at ways in which the government can allow companies to look for and produce more oil and gas without breaking Labour’s pre-election pledge not to issue new licences on new fields.
The plans, which will be announced in the coming months as part of a wider strategy for the North Sea, come amid pressure on one side from climate activists to stop all drilling, and on the other from Donald Trump to “drill, baby, drill”.
A government spokesperson said: “The strategy will set out how the government intends to meet its manifesto commitments to ensure no new licenses to explore new fields and maintaining existing fields for their lifetime.” They said the government would meet its manifesto commitments “in full”.
Miliband has been working on proposals for the North Sea for months as the government looks for ways to maximise the lives of existing oil and gas fields without allowing completely new exploration.
Labour promised in its manifesto not to grant any new licences on new fields, and ministers are now looking at how they can implement that while also gaining an economic return from the sizeable industry which already exists. Oil and gas companies employ about 30,000 people from their base in north-east Scotland.
dizzy: It looks like yet more broken promises from the Labour party, seems to be what they’re really good at. Expanding airports is ignoring climate commitments, a huge danger with the North Sea is Rosebank.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Vote Labour for Genocide.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
The Italian Naval frigate Virginio Fasan, which has been deployed to protect the Sumud Flotilla after it was attacked by drones en route to Gaza.(Photo from the Italian Navy)
“States have a responsibility to ensure the safe passage of the flotilla,” said Amnesty International.
The Italian government says it has sent a naval ship to assist the Global Sumud Flotilla after it was attacked by several drones.
Organizers of the flotilla said that the boats, which are carrying humanitarian aid for the starving people of Gaza, were attacked by a swarm of 15 drones early Wednesday morning, with the convoy in the Mediterranean Sea about 600 nautical miles from the enclave.
According to Drop Site News, at least eight attacks and six explosions were reported as flash bang grenades hit at least six of the boats. One person has been injured, and two of the boats have been damaged. They also reported that an “unidentified chemical device” was dropped onto one of the boats before falling off into the water.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Italy’s defense minister Guido Crosetto said: “Regarding the attack suffered in recent hours by the Sumud Flotilla vessels, which also include Italian citizens, carried out using drones by currently unidentified perpetrators, we can only express the strongest condemnation. In a democracy, even demonstrations and protests must be protected when they are conducted in compliance with international law and without resorting to violence.”
“To ensure assistance to the Italian citizens on the flotilla,” Crosetto said that he had “authorized the immediate intervention of the Italian Navy’s multi-purpose frigate Fasan,” which he said was “already en route to the area for possible rescue operations.”
The deployment comes after labor unions in Italy led a nationwide strike in solidarity with Gaza on Monday, with hundreds of thousands of people in 75 cities and towns rallying to support Palestinians as well as the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Hundreds of other elected representatives to the European Union also issued calls on Wednesday for their own governments to provide protection to the flotilla.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Vote Labour for Genocide.
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Israeli tank and armored vehicle are seen from Israel – Gaza border on September 21, 2025. [Tsafrir Abayov – Anadolu Agency]
Israel is seeking permanent control of the Gaza Strip while ensuring a Jewish majority in the occupied West Bank and inside Israel, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel said in a new report Tuesday, Anadolu reports.
The commission found Israeli policies since October 2023 show “clear and consistent” intent to “forcibly transfer Palestinians, expand Israeli Jewish civilian presence and annex the entirety of the West Bank,” blocking Palestinian self-determination.
It warned that these measures are part of a broader strategy to prevent any future Palestinian state.
“I am particularly appalled by the Israeli Finance Minister (Bezalel) Smotrich’s recently announced plan of annexing 82 percent of the occupied West Bank, and by the approval of a plan cementing the E1 settlement expansion, with Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu asserting that this will ensure there will be no Palestinian State,” said Navi Pillay, the commission chair.
“Israeli encroachment into the entirety of the West Bank and the dispossession and relocation of multiple Palestinian communities are now explicit goals, which Israeli officials proudly boast about,” she stressed, adding that these measures are “abhorrent and must be condemned widely.”
The report said Israeli military operations in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps since early 2025 destroyed buildings, displaced residents, and amounted to collective punishment. Some demolished structures were labeled “terrorist homes” by the army, but the commission found the actions were not militarily justified.
In Gaza, the inquiry found that Israeli authorities “extensively and systematically” demolished civilian infrastructure in corridors and buffer zones, expanding control over 75% of the territory by July.
It said such actions have “substantially reduced the territory available for Palestinians, with significant implications for their ability to exercise their right to self-determination.”
The report also accused Israeli authorities of systematically reducing Gaza’s territory and resources, saying actions inflicted conditions of life calculated to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, “which is an underlying act of genocide.”
“Israel must immediately end and reverse its confiscation and use of Palestinian land in Gaza, including for the creation and expansion of the buffer zone and corridors. It must return all confiscated land to its Palestinian owners,” Pillay said.
“Israeli confiscation and control of land ostensibly carried out for security purposes have not achieved more security for anyone but have deepened the misery of the Palestinian people and deprived them of resources indispensable for their survival, including the capacity to produce food.”
The report also noted that inside Israel, successive governments have implemented laws and policies confining Palestinian localities and hindering integration. It said similarities with measures in the West Bank point to a broader policy “intended to secure a Jewish majority in all areas under Israeli control, reducing the possibility of geographical self-determination for the Palestinian people.”
The commission named Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, current Defense Minister Israel Katz, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Settlements and National Projects Orit Strock, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir as bearing the greatest responsibility for international crimes linked to land and housing, with Netanyahu and Gallant also found responsible for incitement to genocide.
The report will be presented to the UN General Assembly’s 80th session on Oct. 28 in New York.
Last week, the commission concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza by committing “four of the five” genocidal acts defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention: killing members of a group, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy the group, and preventing births.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Vote Labour for Genocide.
