Sunak faces by-election as ex-energy minister quits over drilling legislation

Rishi Sunak faces another by-election challenge as former energy minister Chris Skidmore is poised to resign as an MP, after quitting the Tories over legislation to boost North Sea oil and gas drilling.

Mr Skidmore, who led a Government review of net zero, announced on Friday he would stand down as he said the Prime Minister’s environmental stance is “wrong and will cause future harm”.

The MP for Kingswood in South Gloucestershire said the “future will judge harshly” anyone who backs the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill due to be voted on in the Commons on Monday.

He said he could not vote for legislation that “clearly promotes the production of new oil and gas” and would show the UK is “rowing ever further back from its climate commitments”.

“To fail to act, rather than merely speak out, is to tolerate a status quo that cannot be sustained,” he said in his resignation statement.

Mr Skidmore said he would resign the Conservative whip, making him an independent, and quit as an MP “as soon as possible”.

He confirmed to the PA news agency that he would stand down “next week when Parliament is back”, with the Commons still on its Christmas recess until Monday.

Mr Skidmore has held Kingswood since 2010, beating second-placed Labour by 11,220 votes at the last general election.

That margin is far smaller than in the last two by-election upsets Labour handed to the Tories, when a 24,664 vote majority was overturned in Mid Bedfordshire and 19,634 in Tamworth.

Mr Sunak already faces having to defend Wellingborough after voters ousted scandal-hit Peter Bone.

Announcing his resignation, Mr Skidmore said: “As the former energy minister who signed the UK’s net zero commitment by 2050 into law, I cannot vote for a Bill that clearly promotes the production of new oil and gas.

“At a time when we should be committing to more climate action, we simply do not have any more time to waste promoting the future production of fossil fuels that is the ultimate cause of the environmental crisis that we are facing.”

The Bill would mandate that licences for oil and gas projects in the North Sea are awarded annually, and was seen as a challenge to Labour, which said it would ban new exploration licences to focus on renewables.

Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister Jonathan Ashworth said: “Rishi Sunak is too weak to lead a party too divided to be led and working people are left paying the price.”

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Sarah Olney described it as an “embarrassing mess” for the Prime Minister.

“By delaying the election he has left the country to live with more Conservative chaos,” she said.

“The public simply don’t trust the Conservatives on the environment. Chris Skidmore has confirmed that uncomfortable truth for Rishi Sunak.”

With his Kingswood constituency being abolished under the boundary review, Mr Skidmore had already announced his intention to stand down at the next election, but resigning now means adding to the pressure on the Prime Minister.