Badenoch pledges to maximise North Sea oil and gas extraction

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said her party will focus on maximising North Sea oil and gas extraction if elected.

Badenoch will confirm the move in a speech at an event in Aberdeen where she will also claim that net zero measures mean households end up "paying the price through higher energy bills".

Badenoch said it was "absurd" the UK was leaving "vital resources untapped" while "neighbours like Norway extracted them from the same sea bed".

The Labour government has committed to banning new exploration licences and a spokesperson said “every family and business paid the price of the Conservatives' failure to secure the UK's energy".

Last month, Energy and Net Zero secretary Ed Miliband attacked for Conservatives for being “anti science” by abandoning a political consensus on net zero.