Why Trump Says British Prime Minister Starmer Failed on UK Energy Policy

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation on 22 June 2026, delivering a statement outside 10 Downing Street and confirming he will step down as leader of the Labour Party. The decision ends a turbulent leadership of less than two years, after Labour won the 2024 general election with a 172 seat majority. The collapse followed historic local election losses in May 2026, a brutal by-election defeat in Makerfield where Andy Burnham won 54.8% of the vote on 18 June, and an internal revolt in which more than 100 Labour MPs urged Starmer to leave.

The day before the announcement, on 21 June, US President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Starmer would resign, claiming the Prime Minister had failed badly on immigration and energy and calling for the North Sea oil sector to be opened up. The post landed before any official statement from Downing Street, appearing to pre-empt the Prime Minister himself, and was widely read in Britain as a public humiliation. When Starmer confirmed his departure the following day, the prediction proved correct. Energy policy sat at the centre of the political storm. Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, built much of its polling lead by attacking Labour green commitments and demanding maximum oil and gas extraction.

For global supply chains, the relevance is the uncertainty now hanging over UK energy strategy. Aberdeen, long the petroleum capital of the United Kingdom and host to the headquarters of the publicly owned company Great British Energy, anchors both the legacy North Sea oil and gas industry and the planned clean energy transition. A change of leadership raises questions over the continuity of the North Sea Future Plan, the ban on new exploration licences, and the Clean Power 2030 mission, all of which shape investment decisions across the offshore supply chain.

The record under Starmer was mixed.

On the success side, renewables generated more electricity than fossil fuels for the second year running, and imported primary energy used to supply UK power fell to 46% in 2025, the lowest share in over twenty years. The February 2026 renewable auction added new wind and solar projects, including the Berwick Bank and Pentland offshore wind farms in Scotland. Great British Energy was established in Aberdeen to channel public investment, backed by a 1 billion pound supply chain fund. The renewable sector employed roughly 145,000 workers in 2025, ahead of the 115,000 in oil and gas.

On the failure side, North Sea production kept declining. For the first time on record, zero exploration wells were drilled on the UK Continental Shelf in 2025, and none were planned for 2026, the lowest well activity since 1964. Industry bodies blamed the Energy Profits Levy, a 38% windfall tax, and an uncertain fiscal regime for stifling investment. Oil and gas still made up around 75% of the domestic energy mix in 2025, leaving Britain exposed to volatile global gas prices that drove the cost of living crisis. Critics argued the strategy left the country chasing a shrinking resource while not moving fast enough on alternatives, a tension that fed directly into the political crisis now playing out.

Gas storage exposed one of the clearest weaknesses. The UK holds some of the lowest reserves in Europe, with roughly 12 days of supply against 89 days for Germany, 103 for France, and 123 for the Netherlands. The Rough facility off the Yorkshire coast, which provides about half of national storage, became a flashpoint. Operator Centrica stopped injecting gas in 2025 after projecting operating losses of 50 to 100 million pounds, citing the narrow gap between summer and winter prices. The company set its proposed 2 billion pound redevelopment of the site into a methane and hydrogen store against the need for a government-backed regulatory model, talks that dragged on without resolution. With its operating consent set to lapse at the end of April 2026 and that model still unsettled, the facility spent the period under repeated closure warnings, raising the prospect that national storage could be cut by nearly half and leaving the grid more exposed during cold snaps and supply shocks.

With Starmer departing, Andy Burnham is widely seen as the likely successor and would become the seventh UK prime minister in a decade. Candidates need the support of 20% of Labour MPs to enter the contest. The direction of the next government on North Sea licensing, the windfall tax, and the pace of the energy transition will determine confidence across drilling contractors, offshore suppliers, and renewable developers in the months ahead.