Donald Trump has urged Andy Burnham to open up the North Sea to drilling at once, telling GB News he “cannot get the point across” enough.
The President, responding to a question from The People’s Channel, said the Prime Minister promised him he would “open up North Sea oil”.
“If he does that, you’re going to be a wealthy country if he does it reasonably,” he said.
The Commander-in-Chief has long advocated for Britain to drill off the Scottish coast, repeatedly urging Sir Keir Starmer to drill for crude oil.
“He’s got energy problems,” the President said. “He’s got windmills all over the place. And any time you see windmills, you see a failing country.”
Earlier this month, the President praised Mr Burnham’s rumoured green-lighting of North Sea oil drilling, saying the people of Aberdeen were “dancing in the streets” and that the “old and horrible looking windmills” in Scotland would be removed.
The day before Mr Burnham succeeded Sir Keir, he urged the Makerfield MP to “make the United Kingdom, from a poverty stricken disaster, to one of the richest countries anywhere in the world”.
On Wednesday, Mr Trump again said drilling in the North Sea would make Britain a “really rich country” comparable to Norway with its “trillions of dollars in the bank”.
Donald Trump insisted North Sea drilling would make the UK a ‘really rich country’
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REUTERS
“You have one of the most valuable oil finds anywhere in the world,” he added. “And if the United Kingdom would use it, they’d be a wealthy country again.”
Sir Keir and Mr Trump repeatedly clashed over the issue of North Sea drilling – which the President said was one of two issues facing the UK, alongside immigration.
He told GB News: “I could not get Starmer to use it. It was incredible.
“Every oil company that I meet. And these are all big giants. Every person that I know in the oil business said: ‘Please, could you open up the North Sea? Could you get them to open it?’ They’re dying to do it.”
In April, the President suggested the only way Sir Keir could “recover” politically was by drilling in the North Sea. He never did.
Andy Burnham said he would handle the relationship with the President by ‘meeting him where he’s at’
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And in May, Mr Trump admitted the former Prime Minister was a “nice man”, but said he was in a “lot of trouble” unless he tackled immigration and began harvesting oil.
The Prime Minister has said he plans to handle the relationship with Mr Trump by “meeting him where he’s at” as the issue of North Sea drill hovers over his premiership.
Labour’s 2024 manifesto pledged not to issue new North Sea drilling licences – a commitment Mr Burnham is expected to uphold.
But Jackdaw and Rosebank previously received licences under the Conservative Government, and the Prime Minister is said to be “open-minded” about drilling in the fields.
He is also considering expanding the use of “tiebacks”, which allows new drilling to take place near existing sites, according to The Times.
Jackdaw and Rosebank oil fields in the North Sea previously received licences
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GETTYMr Burnham has, however, appointed Net Zero-advocates Ed Miliband and Miatta Fahnbulleh as Foreign Secretary and Energy Secretary, respectively.
In 2016, Mr Miliband described Mr Trump as a “racist, misogynistic self-confessed groper” – remarks which, last week, were shrugged off by the US ambassador to the UK.
Ms Fahnbulleh has previously warned against approving new oil fields.
In 2022, she wrote on social media: “To have a shot at staying within 1.5C global warming, we can’t have any new oil or gas fields. It’s irresponsible and shortsighted to be funding new fossil fuels when we need to be getting to Net Zero fast.”
Shortly after taking her position as Energy Secretary, Ms Fahnbulleh avoided answering any questions directly on North Sea oil, instead telling Times Radio: “I think it is about pragmatism.”