Incoming prime minister Andy Burnham should back increased drilling for oil and gas “if he has any common sense”, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said.
She claimed the former Manchester mayor, who is due to move into Downing Street on Monday, could raise billions of cash for public services by opening up more developments in the North Sea.
Mrs Badenoch added that Sir Keir Starmer could still be PM if he had “overruled” his Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, on the issue and given the go-ahead to new oil and gas fields.
She spoke out on the issue as she returned to Aberdeen – where the Tories last month won a Westminster by-election.
The party captured the Aberdeen South seat that had previously been held by former SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn – who now sits as an MSP at Holyrood – with Mrs Badenoch making several campaign visits to the area.
She said that by-election had been a “referendum on drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea” as she insisted: “If Andy Burnham has any common sense he will allow drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.”
Speaking to the Press Association after a roundtable meeting with oil and gas representatives, the Conservative leader said: “Perhaps if Keir Starmer had overruled Ed Miliband and done the right thing he might be in the job today.
“He might have found more money, he might have sent a signal to business that Labour understood them. It’s now time for Andy Burnham to show that he understands business.”
Adding she had “a message for Andy Burnham” on the issue, she said: “There is £4 billion of tax revenue sitting in the North Sea he could get for himself in this Parliament to spend on public services. He should be doing that instead of taxing people more, taxing their homes, taxing their businesses.”
Mrs Badenoch said she had returned to Aberdeen on Thursday because she wanted locals there to know that her party would “keep championing their issues”
She declared: “This is about jobs, a lot of jobs are being lost because we are not drilling our own oil and gas in the North Sea.”
She claimed Mr Burnham appeared to “just be thinking that being mayor of Manchester can be extrapolated to the rest of the country” – but said when he becomes prime minister he will have to raise the funds needed for public services.
The Tory said: “The big difference is when you are the mayor of Manchester you get money from the government, when you are prime minister you have to find the money.
“What I want to see Andy Burnham talking about is where the money is coming from.”
Asked what impact Mr Burnham’s premiership could have north of the border, the Tory said: “I don’t know if Andy Burnham has been to Scotland recently.”
However, she said Aberdeen was her second most visited city after Westminster, with Mrs Badenoch adding: “That is because I care about what happens here.
“Every time I come to Aberdeen people tell me it is not the city it once was.
“And I want to champion these people, I want them to know I care about them and their jobs.
“It’s not just at election time we turn up, we are here all the time, that is because we care about the city, we care about the jobs, we care about the livelihoods.”
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