Reform backs push for ‘patriotic’ fracking throughout Britain to assist deliver down household power payments as get together vows to ditch Labour’s Net Zero ‘insanity’

Reform has a ‘patriotic duty’ to allow fracking and oil exploration across Britain, its deputy leader said today as he outlined party plans to rip up Labour’s Net Zero ideology.

Richard Tice and Nigel Farage defended the controversial gas extraction technique which was effectively banned in the UK in 2019 after it was linked to earthquakes, suggesting fears about its safety were overblown.

It came as they unveiled Reform’s business, industry and energy policies for if they win power, which include a ‘Great Repeal Bill’ to abolish Labour laws demanding a push towards Net Zero.

The party would also reverse laws giving more rights to workers and renters, Mr Tice told an event in Dudley, in the West Midlands.

He also called for the UK to up its North Sea oil and gas extraction to become self-sufficient and less reliant on imports suggesting it could help to reduce prices for domestic and business users.

And he backed the idea of fossil fuel digging in places like Lincolnshire, a party stronghold. 

It came after it was reported that Reform’s mayor for Greater Lincolnshire, Andrea Jenkyn, has spoken with a US fracking firm about setting up in the county.

‘We all know that to be a rich nation, you have to have cheap, plentiful energy,’ Mr Tice said. 

‘What about being patriotic about it? What about saying Lincolnshire gas for Lincolnshire jobs for Lincolnshire growth; Yorkshire gas for Yorkshire jobs for Yorkshire growth?

‘It’s our patriotic duty to use our energy treasure.’

Richard Tice and Nigel Farage defended the controversial gas extraction technique which was effectively banned in the UK in 2022

Fracking was linked to earthquakes, and combined with local opposition stopped drilling in areas like Preston New Road, near Blackpool in Lancashire

Nigel Farage’s party would also bring in tariffs on Chinese goods and use public sector pensions to fund a UK sovereign wealth fund

Mr Farage added that opposition to previous fracking sites had been ‘funded mostly by the Russians’ to defend their own gas interests.

He also downplayed the risk of earthquakes, saying they were about as strong as ‘a lorry going past your house’.

Ministers halted fracking in England at the end of November 2019 following a series of confrontations between shale gas companies and communities who said the process was disruptive and dangerous, causing earth tremors. 

Liz Truss announced plans to relax the ban after taking over as prime minister in 2022, but it was reinstated by Rishi Sunak when her time in office ended after 49 days.

In January last year it was announced that the last remaining sites would be concreted over after the industry regulator demanded they be put out of use.

Cuadrilla said it was ‘plugging and abandoning’ its exploratory site at Preston New Road, near Blackpool.

A minor earthquake struck near the site in February 2023, disturbing dogs and rumbling cabinets, the British Geological Survey (BGS) said.

The 1.5 magnitude tremor struck at a depth of 2km outside the village of Weeton.  

This morning, the Guardian reported that Ms Jenkyns met executives from Egdon Resources, the UK arm of Heyco Energy, which has found shale gas in the Gainsborough Trough, which stretches from Lincoln to Sheffield.

Mr Tice also called for the UK to up its North Sea oil and gas extraction to become self-sufficient

It cites freedom of information data showing she has met them four times since last summer and sent messages saying she is ‘very supportive of fracking’. 

Mr Farage’s party would also bring in tariffs on Chinese goods designed to protect UK manufacturers and heavy industries, and use public sector pensions to fund a UK sovereign wealth fund.

Speaking in Birmingham this morning Mr Tice, Reform’s business, trade and energy spokesman outlined plans to create a new ‘super department’ to try to get growth up to 4 per cent.

He argued that taking an axe to ‘well intentioned’ laws on the environment and giving workers more rights would lower inflation and energy bills for families.

Speaking at a steel plant he said heavy tariffs and tight quotas on Chinese cars would be accompanied by a new classification of the automotive sector and certain others as ‘seismic industries’.

A Labour Party spokesperson said Reform had ‘formally declared war’ on workers.

‘Nigel Farage and his cronies want to rip up hard-won workers’ rights on parental leave, sick pay, and would cut up to a million clean energy jobs in the process.

‘Reform have revealed whose side they’re on – and it’s not working people. And it’s families up and down the country who’d be left paying a very heavy price.’