Keir Starmer has suggested that his conversation with Donald Trump on Thursday night was centred on security and the need for a “practical plan” to open the Strait of Hormuz, rather than on the US president’s wider impact on Britain’s energy bills.
The prime minister’s remarks come amid a wider political row over energy policy, North Sea drilling and the government’s response to expensive electricity. The discussion has also been shaped by renewed calls to back oil and gas projects in the North Sea, including Rosebank and Jackdaw.
Rosebank and Jackdaw back in focus
Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, has joined those urging the government to allow drilling for oil and gas at Rosebank and Jackdaw. Both fields were approved by the previous Conservative government before the decisions were later overturned by a court ruling.
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, now has to decide on the revised applications while acting in a quasi-judicial capacity. That means he must follow due process and cannot make the decision simply on political grounds.
The broader argument over energy policy remains sharply divided. One side of the debate says the answer is to speed up Clean Power 2030 and decarbonise the electricity system as fast as possible. The other argues that the UK should expand domestic oil and gas production. According to the analysis in the debate, both positions contain some truth, but neither fully resolves the structural problem facing the country.
The central issue is that, outside the power sector, the UK economy is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels. At the same time, electricity remains too expensive to support electrification on the scale needed for transport, heating and industry.
A high-cost, low-electrification trap
Critics describe the UK as trapped in a self-reinforcing cycle. High electricity prices suppress demand, which slows the adoption of electric vehicles, heat pumps and industrial electrification. Weak growth in demand then leaves fixed system costs — including networks and long-term contracts — spread across a smaller base, helping keep prices high.
The end result, as described in the debate, is a system that is too costly to electrify and therefore remains tied to fossil fuels and vulnerable to global shocks.
Online harms legislation advances
Separately, the government is moving ahead with measures aimed at tackling harmful pornography online. The first of the new measures will ban possession or publication of pornography showing incest between family members, as well as sex between step or foster relations where one person is pretending to be under 18.
A further amendment will criminalise the publication and possession of pornography in which an adult is roleplaying as a child.
The government said it is “uncompromising” in its mission to protect women and girls online, adding that action has already been taken to stop tech firms from publishing abusive content.
In February, platforms were told they must remove reported non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours.
Supporters of the new rules say they will help address harmful pornographic material, including incest, step-incest and content mimicking child sexual abuse. They argue that such material is widely available online and can normalise child sexual abuse and abusive family relationships.
One supporter of the changes said the government had responded to calls for action and welcomed the UK’s role in regulating what was described as a high-harm industry.
With energy prices, North Sea policy and online safety all moving through Westminster at once, the government faces pressure on several fronts as it seeks to balance industrial strategy, legal process and public concern.
