Sunak Faces Another By-election as Ex-energy Minister Quits Over Drilling Bill

Minister of State Chris Skidmore on Sept. 12, 2019. Joe Giddens/PA Wire

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing another by-election as former energy minister Chris Skidmore is poised to stand down over offshore drilling legislation.

Mr. Skidmore, who signed the UK’s net zero commitment into law, resigned on Friday from the Conservative Party and said he will quit his seat next week after Christmas recess is over.

A new MP for Kingswood will only be holding the seat for a few months as the constituency will no longer exist in the next general election.

Labour’s shadow climate and net zero secretary Ed Miliband congratulated Mr. Skidmore “for standing up to this desperate Conservative government.”

Reform UK criticised the MP, accusing him of triggering “an unnecessary by election for the sake of a few months to satisfy his own hypocritical virtue signalling.”

Mr. Skidmore has held Kingswood since 2010, beating second-placed Labour by 11,220 votes at the last general election.

That margin is far smaller than in the last two by-election upsets Labour handed to the Tories, when a 24,664 vote majority was overturned in Mid Bedfordshire and 19,634 in Tamworth.

Mr. Sunak already faces having to defend Wellingborough after voters ousted scandal-hit Peter Bone.

With his Kingswood constituency being abolished under the boundary review, Mr. Skidmore had already announced his intention to stand down at the next election, but resigning now means adding to the pressure on the prime minister.

‘No Case’ for New Fossil Fuel

In a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr. Skidmore said he can’t vote for the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill, which is set to be debated for the first time on Monday.

The bill creates a duty for the Oil and Gas Authority to invite applications for new offshore production licences each year if domestically produced natural gas during the past three years has been less carbon intensive than imported liquified natural gas, and if the amount of domestic oil and gas production is not expected to meet domestic demand in the next 15 years.

Announcing his resignation, Mr. Skidmore said: “As the former energy minister who signed the UK’s net zero commitment by 2050 into law, I cannot vote for a bill that clearly promotes the production of new oil and gas.”

The former net zero tzar published an independent review of Net Zero last year and is currently a member of the Environmental Audit Committee.

He argues there’s “no case to be made for increasing fossil fuel production at a time when investment should be made elsewhere, in the industries and businesses of the future, and not of the past.”

He also claimed that the bill “achieves nothing apart from to send a global signal that the UK is rowing ever further back from its climate commitments, and he said ”the future will judge harshly” those who vote for it.

“At a time when we should be committing to more climate action, we simply do not have any more time to waste promoting the future production of fossil fuels that is the ultimate cause of the environmental crisis that we are facing,” he claimed.

The MP said in the letter that he will be “standing down from Parliament as soon as possible.” He later told the PA news agency that he would stand down “next week when Parliament is back.”

Commenting on the letter, Mr. Miliband said, “Well done to Chris Skidmore for standing up to this desperate Conservative government,” and said Labour will vote against the bill.

“Their irresponsible, reckless attempt to double down on fossil fuels won’t cut bills, undermines energy security, and is a climate disaster,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Sarah Olney described Mr. Skidmore’s resignation as an “embarrassing mess” for the prime minister.

“By delaying the election he has left the country to live with more Conservative chaos,” she said.

“The public simply don’t trust the Conservatives on the environment. Chris Skidmore has confirmed that uncomfortable truth for Rishi Sunak.”

Hunt: Domestic Energy ‘Important’

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme on Saturday, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said he’s “very sad to lose a respected colleague,” but Mr. Skidmore is wrong about the issue.

“I do profoundly disagree with the reasons that he gave for resigning,” he said.

“The independent panel for climate change [the Climate Change Committee] that we have in this country are very clear that even when we reach net zero in 2050, we will still get a significant proportion of our energy from fossil fuels. And domestic oil and gas is four times cleaner than imported oil and gas,” he said.

Asked whether he viewed Mr. Skidmore as a “rat leaving a sinking ship,” Mr. Hunt said: “No, I think he is just wrong on that issue. He feels very passionate about that. … But the point is, I think he is wrong on North Sea oil and gas.

“When you have the problems in the Red Sea [with international cargo ships being attacked by Iran-backed Houthi rebels], it is very important for energy security that we have domestic sources of that kind of energy as we go into transition,” he said.

Tice: Waste of Taxpayer Cash

Reform UK leader Richard Tice lambasted Mr. Skidmore, saying his resignation is “a scandal of selfishness, of hypocrisy, and of grotesque abuse of taxpayers cash.”

“He claims to be concerned about the environment and climate change, but ... he’s holding an unnecessary by-election for the sake of a few months to satisfy his own hypocritical virtue signalling, so that he can further his own bank balance,” Mr. Tice said, adding that a by election will cost “about £250,000 pounds of hard-pressed Council taxpayers cash” and take “a million pages of paper from trees.”

PA Media contributed to this report.