In the same week the Government celebrate expanding our national parks, they vote to allow drilling under them - Nandy/McCarthy

Lisa Nandy MP Labour’s Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary and Kerry McCarthy MP Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, commenting on today’s Statutory Instrument on fracking, said:

“Today in the House of Commons, the Government u-turned and tried to use a parliamentary backdoor to sneak through fracking regulations which are totally inadequate. This is despite agreeing to a crucial Labour amendment to the Infrastructure Bill earlier this year. Labour’s amendment ensured several safeguards had to be met before fracking could take place.

“These new regulations will allow shale gas drilling to take place in drinking water protection zones, important wildlife sites and below our beautiful national parks and stunning world heritage sites.

“So, in the same week the Government celebrate expanding our national parks, they vote to allow drilling under them.

“We absolutely believe these weakened regulations fail to provide critical environmental safeguards, safeguards which must be re-introduced before any further developments in fracking can take place.

“Labour will be objecting to these and as we believe this is such a serious issue we will be asking for a vote of the whole House next week.“