The Prime Minister claimed he had no power to approve more licences and insisted that the final call lay with the Energy Secretary.
Labour is under mounting pressure – including from Donald Trump – to approve new extraction at Rosebank and Jackdaw, two fossil fuel sites in the North Sea, after the Iran war caused energy costs to spiral.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservatives, said that Sir Keir could make the decision to drill today and accused him of “hiding behind” Miliband.
Critics have already claimed that Miliband wields too much power over the Prime Minister after he successfully led opposition to the UK allowing the US to strike Iran from British bases.
Despite the energy crisis, Miliband has reiterated his vocal opposition to North Sea drilling, arguing repeatedly that it would not bring down prices.
When Badenoch challenged Sir Keir to approve the licences, the Prime Minister insisted that current laws prevented him from overruling the Energy Secretary.
Sir Keir suggested any move by Miliband to drill would be a legal decision rather than political, saying: “It’s absolutely clear that the quasi-judicial duty of the legislation rests with the Secretary of State.”
He added: “The only way forward is to go further and faster on renewables and the leader of the Opposition’s approach is to outsource our foreign policy and let the US decide whether we go to war, to outsource our energy policy to Russia and Iran and let them set the price of energy. I will never do that, because it’s not in the British national interest.”
Badenoch had questioned whether it was Sir Keir or Miliband, who has been touted as a potential leadership contender, who was really in charge.
The Tory leader said: “The Jackdaw gas field could be up and running before winter. All that gas would be used here in the UK to heat 1.6 million homes – that is enough to power Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex put together.
“So will the Prime Minister approve the licences or is the Energy Secretary running the Government?”
Badenoch added: “He is hiding behind so many people. He is the Prime Minister, he can make the decision today, he can. He is so weak, he’s the first person to be pushed around by the Energy Secretary.”
She later shared an image of Sir Keir with his head in his hands shortly after PMQs with the caption: “TFW [that feeling when] Ed Miliband is running the Government.”...<<<Read More>>>...