Donald Trump has sparked a fiery row on GB News after making a fresh demand to the Labour Government over their energy policy.Taking to Truth Social, the US President called on Sir Keir Starmer to ditch "costly and unsightly" wind turbines and instead to focus on drilling in the North Sea.FULL STORY HERE.
00:00President Donald Trump is calling for the UK to increase and incentivise North Sea oil drilling.
00:06The Truth Social Post reads,
00:08Our negotiated deal with the United Kingdom is working out well for all.
00:13I strongly recommend to them, however, that in order to get their energy costs down,
00:17they stop with the costly and unsightly windmills and incentivise modernised drilling in the North Sea,
00:24where large amounts of oil lay waiting to be taken.
00:26A century of drilling left with Aberdeen as the hub.
00:31The old-fashioned tax system disincentivises drilling rather than the opposite.
00:36UK's energy costs would go way down and fast.
00:40That is Donald Trump.
00:40He's basically telling Keir Starmer to stop building unsightly windmills and drill, baby, drill.
00:46Joining us now, broadcaster and writer Emma Trimble,
00:48also former Labour Minister Bill Rammell in the studio.
00:51Emma Trimble, he's right.
00:52Terribly sensible advice from the President.
00:54Yeah, I think he's absolutely right.
00:57They are unsightly and it does, it's just common sense.
01:01That is the way to get our energy costs down.
01:03I don't see how it's easy for anyone to argue against that, but I'm sure that Bill will disagree.
01:09Well, I'll argue with the facts.
01:11Renewables are cheaper and more secure than oil and gas.
01:14More secure.
01:15If they were more secure, you wouldn't have to have a backup generator.
01:18Bill, let him carry on.
01:19I want to hear what you're saying.
01:20Security, you know, when Russia invaded Ukraine, because of our dependence on oil and gas and imported oil and gas,
01:26the prices went through the roof.
01:28That's what I mean by security.
01:28Bill, I got packed off to Madrid a few weeks ago by the channel to report on the blackouts there.
01:33The 48 hours of blackouts caused...
01:36No, not caused.
01:37Yes.
01:37No empirical evidence.
01:39There's been no detail finding...
01:40Read the Telegraph today.
01:41Read the Daily Telegraph.
01:42Massive cover-up suggested between the energy good operator.
01:45Sources in Brussels have said that it was because of over-reliance on solar,
01:50which doesn't have the backup capabilities of the fossil fuel system.
01:53It's the intermittent power, isn't it?
01:54There has been no detailed research and report about what caused that.
01:58Read the Telegraph today.
01:59But let's come back to the issue of Trump.
02:01Renewables are cheaper.
02:03They can pull our energy prices down.
02:05Oil and gas is more expensive.
02:07But there's a big...
02:07No, no, no.
02:08I can't let you get away with that, though.
02:11Because it's not true.
02:11It's not true, is it?
02:12It is true.
02:13In what way are they cheaper?
02:14And just to remind you, you talked about Russia.
02:16They're about 30% cheaper.
02:17Where do you think that the solar panels are coming from and the windmills, the equipment to make these things?
02:22Where do you think they're coming from?
02:22Some of the parts are coming from China.
02:24Most of the parts are coming from China.
02:25Yeah, and we need a trading relationship with China.
02:27So now we are simply moving our enemies.
02:30So we're kind of moving our dependency from Russia to China, both of which, that doesn't make us a higher dependency.
02:35You need to go into it with your eyes open and you need security.
02:37My eyes are wide open.
02:38Yeah, but we need a trading relationship with China.
02:42Yes, but that's dependency.
02:43You're talking about dependency.
02:44You're talking about who we are depending for on our energy.
02:47And if you're saying that we were dependent on Russia, we're now beholding to China.
02:51We trade with all sorts of people, but when you have an aggressive power like Russia that invades a sovereign country, that pushes prices through the roof.
03:01If we invest more and secure more renewables, the evidence shows the prices are low.
03:05But there's a bigger bit here.
03:07Okay, look at the bigger bit.
03:08I mean, surely the common sense solution would be to have as diversified sources of energy as possible.
03:22And so drilling for oil in the North Sea would be, you know, would be an answer to energy dependency or whether it's on China for parts for renewables or whether it's on Russia for gas.
03:32Obviously, it's sensible to have the most sources of energy possible in such a tumultuous global political situation.
03:40And I think it's, I mean, it's rich to talk about Donald Trump intervening, as we were just saying before we were on Air Nana.
03:48It's not that long since Labour sent activists over to the United States to campaign for Joe Biden.
03:53So, I mean, we can't really criticise Donald Trump's well-intended advice, which I think is absolutely fair enough, when we have British politicians doing absolutely exactly the same thing when it comes to the United States.
04:06It's much the same as using the power of your office to dictate and lecture to other countries.
04:11And hold on, Emma.
04:12Isn't that what negotiating any deal is?
04:14This is setting a very dangerous precedent, because Trump is doing it on a weekly basis with a whole host of nations, and that's not how you build a stable international world.
04:21What is Keir Starmer doing, then, when he's dictating to people like Israel as to what to do and everything else like that, when he's on the global stage telling other countries what they should be doing?
04:30Is he not just doing exactly the same thing?
04:32I think he's absolutely right to point out, one, that this country stood up for the right of Israel to defend itself, but the degree of response is now disproportionate, and he's expressing a concern about that and urging Israel to sue for peace.
04:46He's doing exactly what you're saying Donald Trump is doing, though.
04:48He's interfering in a sovereign nation.
04:50We're negotiating with the United States, and we're also, as we negotiated with the European Union, the European Union dictates stuff to us all of the time.
04:59And I don't hear any Labour activists or politicians complaining about that.
05:02But you negotiate in a chamber.
05:05You don't have megaphone diplomacy where you are critiquing in public.
05:10I mean, are you comfortable with the number of foreign leaders who get beaten up in the White House?
05:17You're losing this one.
05:18You're losing this one.
05:19I will say, that's what people voted for.
05:20People voted for the South...
05:21People such as the South African president to be held to account.
05:24They voted for the likes of Zelensky to be held to account.
05:27They knew what they were getting with Donald Trump, and that's why they voted for them.
