PRIME MINISTER Andy Burnham was urged to stand up to profiteering fossil fuel giants and reject plans to drill Britain’s largest untapped oil field as consultations on them drew to a close today.

Labour faces a key environmental test as the final decision over the future of the Rosebank oil field, which lies about 80 miles west of Shetland, is left with ministers.

Production at both Rosebank and Jackdaw had been approved by the previous Conservative government, but those decisions were quashed after a legal challenge from Greenpeace, leaving the government to decide whether or not drilling should go ahead.

The decision on the two projects comes after a summer that has seen soaring temperatures and devastating wildfires in both Britain and Europe.

Environmentalists warn that allowing the development of the Jackdaw gas field off the coast of Aberdeen, whose consultation ended last week, would produce more than 250 million tonnes of CO2 — equivalent to 70 per cent of Britain’s annual emissions.

Greenpeace campaigner Maja Darlington said: “The PM wants to be pragmatic, but there is nothing pragmatic about watching communities be battered by climate chaos while the Prime Minister flirts with expanding the very industry driving it. 

“More drilling means more heatwaves, more droughts, more wildfires, and more suffering for the communities Burnham represents. The climate crisis is already hitting working people hardest — firefighters on the front line, bus drivers exposed to inhumane heat, nurses collapsing on the job. 

“Does the Prime Minister really want to stand with the oil companies making billions, rather than the millions already paying the price? Our message is simple: be brave — say No.” 

Robert Palmer, deputy director at Uplift, which campaigns for a transition away from fossil fuels, said: “Burnham needs to look out of the window and acknowledge that this project will make the climate crisis worse and do nothing but rip off Britain.”

Fossil Free London activists protested against the developments with empty harvest baskets outside the Treasury as the consultation closed.

The campaign group’s director Robin Wells said: “We know the ongoing attack on our climate means more frequent, more severe and longer droughts.”

Earlier this month the National Farmers Union warned high temperatures and drought conditions had placed all areas of farming under increasing pressure, leading to food shortages of certain foods and threatening food security.

Analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit has also warned that exceptionally dry and hot weather could knock up to 2.5 million tonnes off Britain’s potential cereal and oilseed harvest.

Energy giants have meanwhile posted a series of record Iran war-driven profits amid price hikes this year.

End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis said: “Approving Rosebank would do nothing to bring down the fuel costs that households here are struggling to pay. All it will do is increase the profits for the field’s ultimate owners — Equinor and Shell.

“Deepening our dependence on this oil only slows the progress the country should be making in moving off the fossil fuel price rollercoaster.”

The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero said: “The North Sea remains a vital national asset, supporting jobs, growth and the UK’s energy security.

“We are clear that oil and gas will continue to play an important role in our energy system for decades to come, alongside transitioning to clean power to protect jobs and tackle the climate crisis.”

But Green Party deputy leader Mothin Ali said: “Suggestions by Andy Burnham that accelerating new North Sea drilling can provide a bridge to clean energy equates to adding more fuel to the fire in order to put it out. 

“As to suggestions that we may not get a decision from the government on Rosebank and Jackdaw until next month, this is deeply cynical. It is kicking the decision into the green grass — hoping that we will have moved on from our parched landscapes, drought and heatwaves and that people will be more ready to accept new drilling.”

Scottish First Minister John Swinney said that it’s “important that individual applications are considered on their merits.”

Bosses at Adura, the company behind both projects, said that Rosebank and Jackdaw are “nationally significant projects” that can “provide more domestically produced energy, support high-quality jobs and apprenticeships, generate substantial economic activity and tax revenues, and give the UK’s world-class energy supply chain confidence for the future.”