Richard Tice used Andy Burnham’s first major Commons appearance as prime minister to deliver one of Reform UK’s familiar attacks on net zero.
Burnham’s answer was blunt: the Reform deputy leader needed to spend a little more time looking at the facts.
Tice began by blaming the cost-of-living crisis on rising energy prices, which he said had been driven by the “rush towards net stupid zero and the increase in renewables”.
He then pressed Burnham over the Rosebank oil field and Jackdaw gas project in the North Sea, asking when the government would approve them.
Burnham was not having the premise of the question.
“In Greater Manchester, it costs £30 to charge a bus with electric charge, £200-plus to fill a tank of diesel,” he said.
“He really does need to look into the facts a little bit more before he makes statements like that in this House.”
Burnham added that solar panels could reduce household energy costs, before making clear that he was not arguing for an immediate end to fossil fuels.
“Yes, we need to be pragmatic. We will still need to rely on oil and gas for some years to come.
“The mistake he is making is saying it’s got to be one or the other for political purposes. The truth is, it’s going to have to be both.”
It was a more complicated answer than the slogan Tice had brought with him. Britain will need oil and gas during the transition, Burnham said, but that is not an argument for abandoning cheaper domestic renewable power.
Did renewables cause Britain’s high energy bills?
Britain does have a serious energy-cost problem. Households are still paying considerably more than they did before the 2022 crisis, while manufacturers regularly warn that high electricity prices make it harder to compete.
Tice is entitled to ask what Burnham plans to do about it. His claim that the rise was caused by renewables is much harder to sustain.
Ofgem’s explanation of the energy market says wholesale gas prices can set the price of British electricity “a large majority of the time”. Gas plants are often the final and most expensive source brought into the system to meet demand, meaning their costs can determine the wholesale price even when much of the electricity being used comes from cheaper sources.
The regulator said the July 2026 increase in the energy price cap was mainly caused by higher wholesale gas prices. When it announced another rise for October, it again pointed to high international gas prices as the driving force.
Renewables are not cost-free. New wind farms, solar projects, storage and grid connections all require investment, and some of that eventually reaches consumers. There are also balancing costs involved when electricity supply changes with the weather.
That is different from saying that adding renewables caused the energy crisis.
Wind and solar have no fuel bill once they are operating. The more frequently they can meet demand, the less often expensive gas generation should be able to set the price. Ofgem estimates gas could determine wholesale electricity prices only 30 per cent of the time by 2030 if more renewable generation and storage are built.
The Climate Change Committee has also estimated that the overall cost of reaching net zero by 2050 would be smaller than the cost of a single fossil-fuel price shock.
Burnham’s bus comparison does not settle every argument about Britain’s energy system, but it does show why reducing fossil-fuel use can cut running costs in practice.
His claim also comes from direct experience. Greater Manchester expanded its electric bus fleet while Burnham was mayor and brought services into the publicly controlled Bee Network. The region has continued to electrify depots and install charging equipment as diesel vehicles are replaced.
As The Daily Britain previously reported, Burnham has repeatedly used Greater Manchester’s buses to make a wider case for public control and long-term investment.
Rosebank and Jackdaw remain under review
There was, however, a part of Tice’s question that Burnham did not answer directly.
The environmental assessments for Rosebank and Jackdaw are currently listed by the government as under review.
The two fields already have licences. The live question is whether their development should receive the necessary approval after previous consent decisions ran into legal trouble over how emissions produced when the oil and gas are eventually burned should be assessed.
Reform wants both projects to proceed and argues that greater North Sea production would improve energy security, protect jobs and reduce reliance on imports.
Climate campaigners are pushing Burnham in precisely the opposite direction. They say approving the fields would undermine Britain’s climate commitments and lock in further fossil-fuel production at a time when demand needs to fall.
The distinction between the projects may also become important. Jackdaw would produce gas for a country that still relies heavily on it for heating and electricity generation. Rosebank would mainly produce oil sold on an international market, meaning its effect on British petrol or household energy prices would be limited.
Burnham has so far tried to keep some ground between Reform’s demand for more drilling and calls for an immediate halt to new projects. Britain needs to move faster on renewables, he argues, while accepting that oil and gas will remain part of the supply for years.
That “both” position got him through the exchange with Tice. The eventual decisions on Rosebank and Jackdaw will provide a much tougher test.
For the moment, Tice’s attempt to pin rising bills on renewable energy ran into the regulator’s own account of what is driving prices.
As @MittensOff put it after watching the exchange:
“Richard ‘Stupid’ Tice harping on about his usual Net ‘Stupid’ Zero, and getting a lesson from Burnham.”
One response to “Andy Burnham gives Richard Tice a Commons lesson after ‘net stupid zero’ attack”
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That’s the issue with Reform they don’t really understand. They are so focused on disrupting they lose sight of the full picture. Also note Tice was the only Reform MP in the chamber. Where were the others? Well we know Farage is never gong to be there because he is touring the country. Interesting where have all the attacks gone, the death threats and the like. Probably like most things just in his mind.
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