Donald Trump has urged the UK to 'scrap windmills' (Image: Getty Images)
Donald Trump urged the UK to “open up the North Sea” and “get rid of windmills” as he blasted Labour’s net zero plans.
The President-elect, commenting on news that an American oil producer was pulling out of the North Sea, said the UK “is making a very big mistake”.
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President Trump’s latest intervention puts him at odds with Labour, who are insisting the UK must shift away from fossil fuels.
In a post on Friday on his social media platform, Truth Social, Mr Trump said: "The UK is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of windmills!".
Elon Musk has continued his attacks on the UK (Image: Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump wants to boost oil and gas drilling in the US, and has said he would halt President Joe Biden’s flagship Inflation Reduction Act package of subsidies for green energy.
Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho said: “As we have been saying, no other major economy is shutting down its domestic oil and gas production.
“We’ll be losing ￡12 billion in tax receipts, hundreds of thousands of jobs - and for what? To import fuel from abroad with higher carbon emissions.
“It’s totally mad.
“The hard truth is that if Ed Miliband had backed the North Sea, they wouldn’t need to take the winter fuel payments off of pensioners.
“That’s the political choice Labour have made.
“Ideology over living standards.”
Former Defence Secretary Sir Gavin Williamson added: “Not only will this kill off an estimated 35,000 British jobs, but Labour also won’t say how they will fund the ￡24.6bn cost of decommissioning.
“We should be drilling oil and gas, but it seems all Starmer wants to drill is a ￡25bn black hole.
“And if we aren’t getting oil/gas from the North Sea, we will have to import it from elsewhere. At a time of global uncertainty, this is madness.
“This move is a triumph of ideology over reality and Labour’s kamikaze approach to our economy and energy security must stop now.”
Mr Trump’s intervention comes as tech tycoon Elon Musk continued his attacks over the UK’s handling of the child grooming gangs scandal.
The Tesla owner has claimed Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had failed to bring "rape gangs" to justice when he was director of public prosecutions.
Mr Musk, a key member of incoming US President Donald Trump's inner circle, also suggested safeguarding minister Jess Phillips "deserves to be in prison" after she denied requests for the Home Office to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham on Thursday.
But Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Mr Musk's attacks were "misjudged and certainly misinformed”.
The businessman, who owns X - formerly Twitter - has used the social media site to post or repost about child grooming in the UK more than 40 times over the last 24 hours.
Several are from UK MPs like Reform's Rupert Lowe and the Tories' Robert Jenrick, while others include a video featuring right wing activist Tommy Robinson - who was jailed for 18 months for contempt of court in October.
Instead of the Government leading a probe, Oldham must follow in the footsteps of other towns like Rotherham and Telford and commission its own inquiry into historical abuse of children, Ms Phillips said in a letter to the local council.
A national inquiry by Professor Alexis Jay concluded in 2022, and probes into Greater Manchester Police's handling of historical child sex abuse cases in Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale have been carried out.
Pressed if Mr Musk's comments were unhelpful to the Government, Health Secretary Mr Streeting told ITV News that ministers took child sexual exploitation "incredibly seriously".
He added: "Some of the criticisms that Elon Musk has made, I think are misjudged and certainly misinformed, but we're willing to work with Elon Musk, who I think has got a big role to play with his social media platform to help us and other countries to tackle this serious issue.
"So if he wants to work with us and roll his sleeves up, we'd welcome that."
The Health Secretary also told the PA news agency that ministers were supportive of an inquiry into the Oldham scandal, but signalled it had to be led locally.
"There may well be, and we think there is a good case for further inquiries into specific places, Oldham being a good and latest example.
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"We would absolutely encourage and work with Oldham in establishing their own inquiries," he said.
Andrew Gwynne, a minister working in Mr Streeting's health team, had earlier taken a stronger stance, suggesting Mr Musk should to stick to US politics, where he is set to act as an unelected adviser to the Trump presidency on cutting federal spending.
Mr Gwynne told LBC: "Elon Musk is an American citizen and perhaps ought to focus on issues on the other side of the Atlantic."
After listing the host of investigations which had taken place, the minister added:
"There comes a point where we don't need more inquiries, and had Elon Musk really paid attention to what's been going on in this country, he might have recognised that there have already been inquiries."
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, which published its final report in 2022, described the sexual abuse of children as an "epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake".
Led by Professor Jay, the inquiry looked into abuse by organised groups following multiple convictions of sexual offences against children across the UK between 2010-2014, including in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Rochdale and Bristol.
In November last year, Professor Jay said she felt "frustrated" that none of the probe's 20 recommendations had been implemented more than two years after its conclusion.
Mr Streeting said the Government was committed to implementing the recommendations of Professor Jay's report "in full".
Sir Keir and his top team have so far sought to not get drawn into a war of words with Mr Musk.
But Mr Gwynne's response to the latest attacks from the Tesla billionaire represents a rare example of a robust response from a minister.
The 53-year-old businessman is also reportedly considering a major donation to Nigel Farage's Reform UK Party, after they were pictured together in the US in December.
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Lord Peter Mandelson, the new UK ambassador to Washington, suggested before he was appointed to the role that Mr Farage could be used as a go-between, to quell the row between Mr Musk and the Government.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has meanwhile said a full national inquiry into organised grooming gangs is "long overdue".
Her shadow ministers have pressured Labour into backing an Oldham-specific investigation, despite the Conservatives having snubbed such an idea in Government.