Labour’s third biggest union donor has attacked the party’s decision to pledge a ban on fracking in the UK as “nonsense” and “madness”.
The GMB, which backed Owen Smith for the party leadership, criticised the move, saying it would force the UK to rely on foreign dictators – “henchman, hangmen and headchoppers” – for gas, as well as needlessly stop the creation of high-skilled jobs.
The move was announced at the Labour conference on Monday by Barry Gardiner, the shadow energy and trade secretary. “Today I am announcing that the next Labour government will ban fracking in the UK,” he said. “Fracking locks us into an energy infrastructure that is based on fossil fuels long after our country needs to have moved to renewables. The next Labour government will back the clean technologies of the future.”
Within minutes, the GMB denounced the proposal, with Gary Smith, its Scotland secretary, saying it was “not ethical” and an “abdication of our environmental and moral responsibilities” to become increasingly reliant on gas from dictatorial regimes overseas.
Stuart Fegan, the GMB’s national officer, added: “It is a nonsense that any political party serious on forming a government after the next planned general election in 2020 could promote a ban on shale gas extraction outright. With our national dependency on gas consumption set to increase in the immediate future, ruling out the possible use of a natural fuel that exists beneath our feet in parts of the UK is ridiculous.”
Caroline Flint, the former shadow energy secretary, also criticised the proposed ban without there being a policy to replace it. She told a fringe event: “We can’t just be against things. Nobody is going to vote for a policy if they think that [energy] security is going to be at risk.”
The stance leaves the party even more strongly opposed to fracking than the Scottish government, which has a moratorium in place until the impacts of hydraulic fracturing are researched further. The Welsh government opposes fracking and has instructed local authorities to turn down applications.
In contrast to the negative reaction from the GMB, many environmental groups were delighted. Hannah Martin, energy campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “With opposition to fracking at an all-time high across the country, this ban on an unproven and inexperienced industry will be widely welcomed.”
The industry has confirmed no shale gas wells will be drilled in Britain this year, as a deadline regarding a fracking deal approaches. Within the next fortnight, the government will decide whether to accept shale company Cuadrilla’s appeal against Lancashire county council who decided last year to turn down its application for two fracking sites.
But even if the communities secretary, Sajid Javid, approves the deal as expected, Cuadrilla said construction at the two sites on the Fylde would require drilling to begin perhaps as early as April next year.
The industry trade body told the Guardian that no wells had been drilled into shale in 2016, and it knew of none planned before 2017.
Chemicals giant Ineos, which has heralded the promise of a “shale gas revolution” in the UK and last year promised to “move quickly”, has yet to submit a single shale planning application, it emerged last week, but plans to submit five before the year’s end. Another shale company, Third Energy, recently had its hopes of fracking in North Yorkshire this year dashed due to delays over a legal challenge by Friends of the Earth and a local anti-fracking group.
The lack of action on the ground does not match the government’s aspirations for fracking. David Cameron said more than two and half years ago that the UK was going “all out for shale”, and ministers one year ago promised they would “fast track” bids.
Tony Bosworth, a campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “Reality and rhetoric parted ways long ago on this because quite simply the government backed the wrong horse. Opinion polls repeatedly show that people in the UK strongly support renewables and oppose fracking.”
