Burnham Set to Back North Sea Oil Drilling Before He Even Takes Office Monday

Since Burnham locked up the Labour leadership on Friday, July 17, with backing from 379 MPs and all 11 affiliated unions, the story has moved from who runs the party to what he'll actually do with the job. The answer, according to Bloomberg reporting carried by Rigzone: approve more North Sea drilling, and do it fast.

Burnham takes over from Keir Starmer on Monday, July 20. Bloomberg's Alex Wickham, Jessica Shankleman and Chris Chaplain reported that his team has already asked the civil service to draw up energy and water policy options that could be unveiled within days of him entering No. 10. That includes signaling support for the Jackdaw gas field and Rosebank oil field off Scotland, plus an expansion of "tie-backs" that let companies drill near existing platforms without a fresh standalone approval process.

This contradicts Labour's 2024 manifesto, which pledged not to issue new North Sea licenses while honoring ones already granted. Burnham has said publicly he intends to follow that manifesto. But Rosebank and Jackdaw were both approved by regulators in 2022 and 2023 under the Conservative government, then had those approvals thrown out by courts in 2025 after a legal challenge. That leaves them in a gray zone: not new licenses exactly, but not settled either.

The legal wrinkle nobody can skip

Public consultations on both Jackdaw and Rosebank only opened on Thursday, July 16, according to City AM. That means Burnham's government likely can't formally approve either project until those consultations run their course, no matter how badly he wants to make a splash in his first week. Rigzone reported the same constraint, noting it's the same legal box that boxed in the current government under Starmer.

What's likely happening Monday, or shortly after, is signaling of direction rather than a formal approval.

Miliband's problem

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has spent his time in that job resisting exactly this. He called the original Rosebank license "climate vandalism," according to the BBC, and has pushed renewables expansion as the answer to energy security instead of new fossil fuel output. Miliband is expected to get a senior cabinet post under Burnham, per the BBC, which sets up an awkward dynamic: a prime minister leaning toward drilling, with an energy secretary who's built his political identity on the opposite position.

Rigzone reported that final approval authority doesn't sit with the cabinet as a whole. It sits with whoever Burnham appoints to run the energy department. That means the real fight isn't over Monday's announcement. It's over who gets that job.

Who's pushing which way

The pressure campaign from industry has been loud. City AM reported that Neil McCulloch, chief executive of Adura, the Shell-Equinor joint venture that owns both fields, said approving them would "unlock significant benefits" for UK energy security, adding that Rosebank alone could supply roughly 10 percent of UK continental shelf oil output. Unite the Union's Sharon Graham has called the license ban an "act of monumental political self-harm," according to City AM, and Chancellor Rachel Reeves has also signaled sympathy for the industry's position.

On the other side, environmental groups and the Labour left will treat any drilling approval as a betrayal of net-zero commitments and the 2024 manifesto text itself. That's a fair concern: voters were told one thing in the manifesto, and if Burnham reverses it days into office, that's a real accountability question. The BBC also noted that industry groups and unions sent Burnham a letter before the leadership vote closed, arguing that backing oil and gas "is a signal that government backs the people and places that have powered this country for generations."

Nigel Farage has used the leadership transition to demand an immediate general election, arguing Burnham has no mandate from voters, according to The Independent's live coverage. That's a separate argument from the drilling fight, but it fuels the broader question about whether an unelected change of Labour leader can pivot manifesto commitments this hard, this fast.

What's actually unresolved

No final decision has been made on the exact form of Monday's announcement, and no source has confirmed Burnham will make a formal legal approval that week, only that he's expected to signal support. The consultations on Jackdaw and Rosebank remain open. Whoever Burnham names to replace Miliband, or whether Miliband stays and simply gets outflanked on this one file, will be the next concrete marker to watch, expected once Burnham's cabinet is announced Monday, July 20.