Conservatives and Reform Target Labour’s Net Zero Plans
For Labour, Net Zero is not just a climate goal but a defining economic policy. Ed Miliband, now Energy Secretary, has framed the transition as an “industrial revolution” that can bring investment, jobs, and lower bills if Britain builds its own clean power and clean industries. The government has already set out a national mission for energy independence—anchored in renewables, offshore wind, and home-grown supply chains. For Labour, the future is electrified, decarbonised, and made in Britain.
The opposition sees things very differently.
Conservatives: Back to the North Sea
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has made oil and gas central to her energy pitch. Speaking before traveling to Aberdeen, she pledged to scrap all Net Zero requirements on North Sea drilling and refocus the regulator’s mission to “maximising domestic production.” Her argument is that curbing UK production only increases imports from countries with higher emissions and fewer jobs.
Badenoch has positioned herself as the defender of Scotland’s oil and gas workforce, promising to “end Labour’s ban on new licences” and “revitalise the industry.” In her words: “British energy should power British prosperity.” Net Zero, by contrast, is cast as an “ideological pursuit” that drives up bills and risks 200,000 jobs.
Reform UK: “Net Stupid Zero”
Reform UK has gone further still, calling for the entire Net Zero target to be scrapped. Deputy leader Richard Tice brands the policy “net stupid zero,” blaming it for high energy bills and the loss of “tens of thousands” of jobs in Scottish oil, gas, and chemicals.
Its plan rests on nuclear, gas, and deregulation of fossil fuels:
Fast-tracking new North Sea licences,
Reopening the door to shale gas,
Building small modular nuclear reactors, and
Rolling back subsidies for renewables, replacing them with taxes.
Reform also seeks to tax solar farms and legislate to force energy cables underground. The party’s narrative is simple: Net Zero is hurting households and industry, while more domestic fossil fuels will make people better off.
But Reform is not only attacking Labour. Tice has accused the Conservatives of betrayal too, arguing they not only let the oil and gas workforce “halve in 10 years” but also embraced Net Zero policies themselves. “Never forgive, never forget,” he wrote on social media. In Reform’s pitch, both main parties are complicit—Labour for driving Net Zero forward, and the Conservatives for laying much of its groundwork while failing to protect the industry.
The Next Election Divide
What is emerging is a sharp dividing line ahead of the next election. Labour argues Net Zero is the route to cheaper bills, stronger industry, and energy security. The Conservatives counter that it means lost jobs and higher costs, and that only oil and gas can deliver “energy independence.” Reform UK urges a wholesale retreat, betting that anger over bills and climate targets will resonate.
Public opinion, however, is more nuanced. Surveys show strong backing for clean energy and climate goals in principle, but rising concern about costs, fairness, and local impacts—from onshore pylons to household levies. That tension is where the next election fight may be decided: whether voters see Net Zero as a burden, or as the foundation of Britain’s future prosperity.