‘Ed Miliband is taking UK into economic sabotage- Brits will pay price’ | Politics | News
Britain is facing a crisis and we are sleepwalking into it.
For decades, our refineries have been distilling crude oil and producing the oil, fuel and other petroleum-based products we need to keep this country afloat.
Faced with rising costs, increasing bureaucracy, burdensome regulations and ever-increasing taxes, these refineries were closed one by one.
This is not just a loss of work or capacity; This is also a loss of our national energy security.
Following the conflict in Iran, oil prices have increased, energy bills will rise and there are reports of jet fuel shortages. Thousands of flights are being canceled across Europe due to lack of supply.
Worse still, this Labor government has created an atmosphere so hostile to the oil and gas industry that we only have four refineries left, down from 18 50 years ago.
This is economic self-sabotage.
I was in Pembrokeshire on Thursday this week visiting the Valero refinery. It employs 500 people directly, as well as hundreds more through contractors. The refinery contributes £75 million a year to the Welsh economy and supplies around 14 per cent of Britain’s transport fuels. It processes 270,000 barrels a day and is one of the largest operations of its kind in Europe.
And it is being made uninhabitable by Labour’s industrial vandalism.
Valero says the UK Emissions Trading Scheme is costing them hundreds of millions of pounds a year. This cost is not available for many competitors in the US, Middle East or Asia. This is a unilateral penalty imposed on British industry.
The refinery workers I met do difficult jobs in a society where there are not enough skilled jobs. As refineries like this close, we lose not only production capacity but also skills that we will have difficulty regaining.
Engineers, technicians, people with careers and knowledge are fired because of ideological dogmas. This is the result of deindustrialization and is a political choice.
In 2025, not a single new oil well will be drilled in the British North Sea for the first time since 1964. Our closest neighbor and closest rival, Norway, has drilled 49 drillings.
The Energy Profits Tax – or ‘Window Tax’ – and the new North Sea licensing ban are destroying thousands of jobs and costing the Exchequer £25bn in lost tax revenue over the next 10 years. Ed Miliband’s net zero theology is industrial self-harm.
The Conservative Party has an answer to this. We will scrap the carbon tax, including the damaging Emissions Trading Scheme, end the ban on new North Sea licenses and scrap green taxes that burden British industry.
We will use tax revenues from new drilling in the North Sea and our £47bn savings plan to remove VAT on domestic energy bills and eliminate carbon taxes that hinder British businesses.
If we don’t change course and Ed Miliband continues to push Net Zero dogma, more industries will be at risk of closure. This will make living more expensive for everyone across the country and leave us even more exposed to global supply shocks.
The Conservatives are determined to create a stronger economy, a stronger country and get Britain working again.
