Britons are 'terrified' as Andy Burnham's 'insane' net zero drive force up bills

Andrew Bowie trained to defend Britain from foreign threats at Dartmouth’s Britannia Royal Naval College. Today he is at the heart of efforts to rescue a country he believes is racing in the wrong direction under Labour – and a first priority is ensuring Britons can afford to heat their homes. He claims people are “terrified” when their energy bill lands and this Aberdeenshire MP is pushing for the UK to make the most of the North Sea’s oil and gas.

Labour has a manifesto commitment not to issue licences to explore new fields and he wants a u-turn. “Let us stop cutting off our noses to placate the climate change lobby,” he says, adding: “All we're doing is making ourselves poorer and less secure. It’s madness.” The 39-year-old serves as Kemi Badenoch’s Shadow Energy and Net Zero Secretary at a time when the Institute for Fiscal Studies warns the UK’s electricity prices are “among the highest in the developed world”.

Household prices have gone up by nearly 150% since 2010, with business prices up by almost 175%. “We need much more energy,” Mr Bowie says. “We're going to be using gas for at least the next 50 years, so why not maximise what we can get out of British waters, reducing our reliance on imports?” This is an opportunity to secure British jobs while raising revenues, he enthuses: “It's a win-win-win. Let’s be serious, let’s have a pragmatic and sensible policy.”

Arbroath-born Mr Bowie insists the UK is only “doomed to have the highest energy costs” if it refuses to change course. He argues: “Right now, we are building the most expensive energy system anywhere in the developed world. It’s just insane.” As well as scrapping carbon taxes and levies, he wants a bigger role for nuclear and gas. But he is alarmed by the “totally wrong” priorities of Andy Burnham’s new Energy Secretary. “Miatta Fahnbulleh is just as zealous when it comes to energy policy and getting to net zero as Ed Miliband was,” he says.

“She is an Ed Miliband acolyte, and she’s following in the path set out by her great hero.” Reform UK regularly lambast the Conservatives for enshrining the target of net zero emissions by 2050 in 2019. Mr Bowie describes how politicians were “distracted by Brexit” while a “mass movement” was “calling for something to be done” to tackle climate change. But he is clear it is time to “hit reset, rip it up, start again”. While he insists climate change is “definitely” real, he argues that Britain’s “mad plans” are “having no impact whatsoever on the big problem”.

His fears for the future of Britain under Labour go far beyond energy security. With the Prime Minister suggesting that rejoining the EU is a possibility, he warns against setting a precedent that referendums can be rerun. If the 2016 Brexit result can be revisited, he argues, the SNP will demand another public vote on independence. He looks back on the 2014 referendum, in which he worked on the Better Together campaign, with a shudder: “People think the Brexit referendum was bad, they've seen nothing.

It was vicious and vitriolic. “Friends of mine were spat at in the streets. People were scared to put posters up in their window in case they got bricks through it. That was the atmosphere in Scotland in 2014. We do not want to revisit that. We need to move on.” The SNP has led the Scottish government since 2007 and he denounces their record: “We've got a Scottish education system that used to be the pride of the world crumbling, falling down the league tables.”

Mr Bowie attended Inverurie Academy, a comprehensive school, and after his time in the Navy he enrolled at the University of Aberdeen to study history and politics. He is adamant that if he was a student today at the freshers’ fair he would not join Reform UK. “They are not a centre-Right party,” he claims. “They're certainly not a conservative party. We cannot do a deal with Reform now or in the future. We're focused on winning the general election, getting a Conservative majority, and putting Kemi Badenoch into 10, Downing Street.”

He gained early experience of performing in front of an audience as a violinist with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. “I haven't picked [the violin] up in quite a long time,” he says. “It’s sitting in the corner of my daughter's bedroom. She's only two years old but maybe one day I'll encourage her to play it.” However, he is reminded of his days as a young musician as he describes the Tory party under its present leader. “If you're sitting in an orchestra, you're all doing different things.

But under the good, strong leadership of a conductor – Kemi Badenoch – you can deliver a symphony and that's what we're seeking to do.” He was impressed by Mrs Badenoch when they were both elected in the 2017 election. Theresa May appointed him as her parliamentary private secretary – a role which traditionally involves acting as the eyes and ears of the PM on the backbenches. This frontline position gave him an “invaluable” lesson in government.

He learned why “when you're seeking to take incredibly tough decisions, you need to do that with the full knowledge that you’ve the backing of the people that are closest around you”. “Unfortunately,” he adds, “Theresa never really had that.” He is also frank about the Tories’ final years in power: “Unfortunately, towards the end of our time in government, I think there were too many of my colleagues who didn't see the importance of being a team player and moving as one.

And that's the difference between the Conservative Party pre-2024 and the Kemi Badenoch Conservative Party that we're in right now. This is one party that is totally united and determined to get back into government at the first available opportunity, and it's never felt as strong a team as it does now.” That opportunity to return to power, he says with passion, may not be far off: “I really do think that this country needs Kemi as Prime Minister.

I’m not just saying that because I'm in her shadow cabinet.” With Chancellor John Healey’s first Budget taking place on Wednesday, he points to the “appalling” challenges facing the armed forces as a symbol of what is wrong with Britain. “We've got the embarrassing situation when the Royal Navy, once the world's premier fighting force at sea, can struggle to get one ship to the Eastern Mediterranean. I do worry where this country is headed, and there's only one person I can see with the vision and the determination to actually change course and deliver tangible change, and that’s Kemi.”