Labour donor and Ecotricity founder Dale Vince reverses position, now backing North Sea oil and gas drilling with price controls

Dale Vince, the green energy entrepreneur, Ecotricity founder, and prominent Labour donor, has publicly called on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to approve the Jackdaw and Rosebank North Sea oil and gas developments. Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Vince argued Britain should take a more pragmatic approach to domestic fossil fuel production—a striking reversal from a position he held less than a year ago, when he said he was “opposed to new drilling absolutely.”

Vince calls on Burnham to approve Jackdaw and Rosebank

In the BBC Newsnight interview, Vince was direct about what he wants from the government. He urged PM Andy Burnham to greenlight the Jackdaw and Rosebank North Sea developments—two of the biggest untapped fossil fuel projects in UK waters. Vince said he’d personally lobbied Burnham on the issue, pushing for what he called a more pragmatic approach to domestic extraction.

He didn’t frame it as walking back his environmentalism. Instead, he positioned it as a practical response to the UK’s energy reality, telling Newsnight: “We are using fossil fuels for the next couple of decades. That’s a reality. If we approach things differently, we can actually make sense of drilling the North Sea.”

Both have faced significant legal and political headwinds in recent years, and neither has moved smoothly toward development under the current Labour government.

Why Vince changed his stance: The price-control argument

The core of Vince’s new position rests on one specific condition: wholesale energy price controls. His argument is that the UK will depend on fossil fuels for several more decades regardless of what policy says—so the smarter move, he figures, is to shape how that energy gets priced rather than simply block its production.

His proposal draws on an existing model. The retail energy sector already runs under price regulation in the UK, and Vince wants to extend that logic upstream, applying similar controls at the wholesale level for domestically produced gas.

He thinks that combination could deliver real savings for households. “If we price-control it like we have our retail energy sector, we can actually save money,” he told Newsnight. Lower bills and domestic job creation, he suggested, would make approving Jackdaw and Rosebank worth it. He did attach a firm condition, though: any new drilling must not undermine the UK’s net-zero commitments. “Provided we don’t roll back on net zero,” he said, “it makes sense to be pragmatic about the North Sea, change things so that we can bring our bills down and everybody wins.”

A notable reversal from his earlier opposition

Less than a year ago, Vince’s position couldn’t have been clearer. He described himself as “opposed to new drilling absolutely.” That’s not a nuanced stance open to interpretation—it’s a flat rejection, which is exactly what makes his current comments so striking.

For a high-profile green energy advocate to publicly reverse course on North Sea drilling is unusual. Vince isn’t a fringe figure. He founded Ecotricity, one of the UK’s best-known renewable energy companies, and has been a visible Labour donor whose views carry weight in both environmental and political circles. He’s been careful to frame the shift as pragmatic rather than ideological, explicitly making net zero a condition of his support. But framing matters less than the headline position: Vince now backs drilling he previously opposed outright.

That reversal draws extra attention because of who he is. A Labour donor backing a policy the Labour government has approached cautiously, in a sector he built his career opposing—that’s the kind of contradiction that gets noticed. Whether his argument gains any traction in government remains an open question.

Background: The Jackdaw and Rosebank Projects and energy policy

Jackdaw and Rosebank are two of the largest undeveloped oil and gas fields in the North Sea. Both have faced significant legal and political headwinds in recent years, and neither has moved smoothly toward development under the current Labour government.

The UK government has signaled a cautious approach to new fossil fuel licensing, trying to balance domestic energy security against its net-zero commitments—a tension that hasn’t been easy to resolve. Both projects have become focal points in the broader debate over how quickly Britain can, or should, move away from fossil fuels.

Advocates for domestic production argue that North Sea output reduces the UK’s reliance on imported gas, which carries its own environmental and geopolitical costs. Importing liquefied natural gas typically involves higher emissions than piping gas from domestic fields. Energy security, especially after the volatility of recent years, has pushed that argument back into mainstream debate with renewed force.

Vince’s intervention adds a notable voice to all of this, according to Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce. A prominent green entrepreneur and Labour donor now supports approving Jackdaw and Rosebank, provided wholesale price controls accompany any new drilling. He frames the shift as pragmatic, holds net zero as a non-negotiable condition, and has reversed from outright opposition stated less than a year ago. Whether the Burnham government responds to that argument—from one of its own donors—is the question that follows naturally from here.

Kelly Lippke

Kelly is an experienced writer with 15 years of experience exploring the big stories that shape our world, from tech breakthroughs and space exploration to climate, energy, and the fascinating quirks of science. She has a talent for turning complex ideas into sharp, memorable insights that stay with readers long after they’ve finished reading.