My op-ed for the York Press this week.
As I write this, a ceasefire has thankfully been agreed between the US and Iran and the Strait of Hormuz is set to reopen. Fuel prices are now beginning to fall. But in recent weeks the conflict has sent oil prices surging past $100 a barrel. The last few weeks have been a stark reminder that we can longer depend on a steady and regular supply of Oil and Gas from overseas. We need to be using our own resources and if not now, when? It seems the Chancellor has rightly come to the same conclusion.
But alas, she and apparently the Prime Minister do not get to call the shots on whether we use our own resources because Ed Miliband is running the show. Despite the North Sea still supplying around half our gas and having millions of barrels of untapped oil Miliband is insistent on plastering our best and most versatile land will acres of Solar. Every expert will tell you renewables are intermittent; they still need gas backup, and gas often sets the price. No doubt they have a role to play in our future energy mix, but they are not our sole saviour.
However, there is an alternative. We could Get Britain drilling again by ending the moratorium on new North Sea licences and scrapping the Energy Profits Levy. We could abolish the Carbon Tax and Renewable Obligation subsidies that inflate electricity bills cutting electricity bills by around 20 per cent for households and businesses. We could remove VAT on domestic energy bills for three years: Saving families up to £200 a year as the cost-of-living squeezes. We could freeze fuel duty and block Labour’s planned red diesel tax hike, which could add nearly 10 per cent to farmers’ costs by next year. We could have all this if the Government adopted the Conservatives' Cheap Power Plan. This would go a long way to ending the scandal of Britian having some of highest energy costs in the developed world - which harm people in areas like North Yorkshire most. In Thirsk and Malton, where driving isn’t optional and farming is the backbone of the local economy, the pain from the recent conflict has been acute. Local families using heating oil have seen prices double in days.
One Thirsk mother recently said she “wanted to cry” when the cost of topping up her tank jumped from around £332 for 500 litres to £692. Off-grid households in North Yorkshire have no protection from the energy price cap and are left exposed to global shocks. For farmers, the situation is even more severe. Red diesel prices have rocketed from around 72-78p per litre to over £1.35-£1.38 in recent weeks. Many are using 5,000–10,000 litres a week for spring drilling, spraying and silage making, and a 30p per litre spike is hitting budgets hard. Fertiliser costs are soaring too. As one trader put it, price lists change daily, sometimes by 4pm the same day. Growing a crop without fertiliser isn’t economic and while fixed costs remain, margins are being wiped out. Farmers in Thirsk and Malton and across North Yorkshire are feeling this “perfect storm” just as land dries up and tractors roll out. The conflict in the Middle East is exposing exactly why energy resilience matters.
We cannot control the Ayatollahs, but we can stop making ourselves deliberately vulnerable. Ed Milibands ideological rush is leaving us weaker and poorer with net zero policies inflating bills through subsidies, taxes and network costs while we import dirtier energy from abroad. The Iranian regime’s recklessness in the Strait of Hormuz is dangerous. But our vulnerability is also home-made. By prioritising ideology over security, Labour has made Britain - and especially rural North Yorkshire - weaker.
