Pragmatism is very welcome.
Many think that the former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is a Premier without a real popular mandate, since during the general election the leader was the failed Keir Starmer with a different set of policies – and that he should call snap elections to submit his name and program to the people’s will.
And that’s very much true.
But it’s also true that, along with a lot of leftist damaging policy ideas, Burnham also has taken some defensible decisions: be it allowing the US use of the Diego Garcia airbase for strikes against Iran, or halting the insane ‘early release’ of criminals, or even defying his own party to cut pension waste, there are some good, common-sense decisions.
One of the most promising of these positive developments arose today, as reports indicate Burnham is signaling that he’s ‘ready to ditch Ed Miliband’s Net Zero stance’ and admits Britain ‘can’t ignore’ North Sea oil and gas.
Burnham says he told Trump UK will be pragmatic about North Sea oil https://t.co/NpiIJDrEF5
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) July 30, 2026
Daily Mail reported:
“The Prime Minister also revealed he had told US President Donald Trump that he would take a ‘pragmatic approach’ to fossil fuels during their first talks last week.
It suggests Mr. Burnham could take a different view on oil and gas drilling to his predecessor Keir Starmer, as well as Mr. Miliband. When he became PM, Mr. Burnham appointed Mr. Miliband as Foreign Secretary as he moved him from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.”
🚨 BREAKING: Donald Trump says Andy Burnham told him he would open up the North Sea for oil drilling
“I couldn’t get Starmer to use it” pic.twitter.com/1INOIZfyUT
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) July 29, 2026
The PM spoke about his view after Trump said ‘the new gentleman’ told him he was going to ‘open up North Sea oil’.
“’I indicated in the phone call that we had a week last Monday that I would take a pragmatic approach when it comes to the North Sea,’ Mr Burnham told reporters during a visit to Barrow in Cumbria on Thursday.
‘And that is my intention as we go forward from here. There is a resource there. When people are struggling, we can’t ignore that. Hence, me indicating that to the President’.”
UK’s PM Burnham: The UK won’t ignore oil in the North Sea.
— FinancialJuice (@financialjuice) July 30, 2026
Read more:
Ad block users: Some site features may not work correctly while an ad blocker is enabled, because they break scripts and content this website depends on. If you can’t see comments below, for example, please disable your ad blocker.