Labour to ban fracking if it wins election

Labour is to announce that it will ban fracking if it wins the next general election.
Protesters outside County Hall, Northallerton, when North Yorkshire County Council backed fracking. Picture: SWNSProtesters outside County Hall, Northallerton, when North Yorkshire County Council backed fracking. Picture: SWNS
Protesters outside County Hall, Northallerton, when North Yorkshire County Council backed fracking. Picture: SWNS

Shadow energy and climate change secretary Barry Gardiner will tell the party’s annual conference in Liverpool that a Labour government would introduce an “outright ban” on the controversial process of extracting gas from shale rock.

He is expected to say: “Today I am announcing that the next Labour government will ban fracking in the UK.

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“Fracking locks us into an energy infrastructure that is based on fossil fuels long after our country needs to have moved to renewables.

“The next Labour government will back the clean technologies of the future.

“We will consult with our colleagues in industry and the trade unions about the best way to transition our energy industry to create the vital jobs and apprenticeships we are going to need for the UK’s low-carbon future.”

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Fracking has proved hugely controversial in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, where councillors voted in May to allow a gas firm to begin exploration.

Friends of the Earth and Frack Free Ryedale are challenging the decision, claiming it was made without properly considering climate change.