Keir Starmer must now make his biggest U-turn of all – but it will tear Labour in two

It shouldn’t be too difficult. Our PM is the U-turn king. He doesn’t make many decisions, preferring to delegate them to faceless committees or worse, Ed Miliband. But when he does, they turn out to be horrible. In January the Express counted 13 humiliating U-turns, and they’ve kept coming ever since. They include some real howlers, on winter fuel, welfare cuts, the two-child benefit cap, taxing family farms, National Insurance, 2p income tax increase, Waspi women, the grooming gangs inquiry and more. It’s an eye-watering tally of surrenders.

Last week brought another classic, as Starmer was forced to back down on his widely-condemned deal to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands and a crucial UK-US military base to Mauritius, an ally of China. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch labelled it the “U-turn of all U-turns from a man with absolutely no backbone”. No wonder the Labour Party faces annihilation at next month’s elections.

But there is one disastrous policy he hasn’t yet reversed. A policy that costs us billions of pounds a year, threatens our national security at a vital time, and is making Britain an international laughing stock. Despite that, Starmer is breaking the habit of a political lifetime, by refusing to backtrack. Why?

Immediately after the 2024 election, energy secretary Ed Miliband blocked new North Sea oil and gas development. It looked like a deluded, self-harming decision at the time, and it looks far worse today, as the world faces the worst energy shock in history.

Everyone from Donald Trump to Kemi Badenoch, Nigel Farage and a host of energy experts calling for Miliband to change course. As has Starmer’s own Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Pressure will only build as energy costs rocket in the weeks ahead. Right now, we need every drop of gas and oil we can extract from the North Sea. The gas, we can use in our homes. The oil we can sell for some much-needed money. Yet Miliband won’t budge and Starmer hasn’t got the guts to make him.

Miliband claims drilling won’t cut our household energy bills because prices are set on the global market but he’s just gaslighting us. Drilling will create tax revenues, secure jobs, boost the balance of payments, bolster our energy security and even cut our carbon emissions.

Miliband refuses on principle. The main principle being that it boosts his standing with party activists. And there’s something else.

Labour is terrified by the resurgent Green Party under Zack Polanski, which is flying in the polls. Polanski has hypnotised the nation’s left by promising to crack down on Israel, open UK borders, quit NATO, scrap nuclear weapons, tax the rich, and borrow and spend like Rachel Reeves on steroids.

Sometimes, the Greens even mention the environment. If Starmer backtracks on North Sea oil, it will be another gift for Polanski, and see even more Labour lefties drift peel away. So he daren’t do it.

Starmer knows a North Sea drilling U-turn will split the party and let the Greens run rampant. Refusing will cause national self-harm. The decision requires backbone. Maybe he should convene a committee.