Greenpeace volunteers flypost bus stops near Rachel Reeves’ Leeds office

Volunteers from the Leeds Greenpeace group have put up posters at every bus stop within a kilometre of Chancellor Rachel Reeves' constituency office in Leeds West and Pudsey, calling on her to block drilling in new North Sea oil and gas fields.

Reeves' web page lists her constituency office as being in Bramley shopping centre. The group used Google Earth to find every bus stop with poster advertising within 1km of the site.

On Tuesday evening the volunteers carried out a guerrilla flyposting operation, swapping the commercial ads for posters of Reeves in front of an oil rig.

The posters carry the headline “Rachel Reeves: Drills won’t lower bills” and the message: “Tell Rachel Reeves MP: Opening new oil fields isn’t the answer to cheaper bills in Leeds West and Pudsey – renewable energy is”.

Rosebank and Jackdaw

Labour's manifesto pledged to turn down applications for permits to drill in new North Sea fields.

Two fields, Rosebank and Jackdaw, were granted permits by the previous government, but these were overturned by the courts because their Environmental Impact Assessments left out the hundreds of millions of tonnes of carbon emissions expected from burning the fuel produced, known as 'Scope 3 emissions'.

The government has not yet decided whether to give Shell and Equinor, the main companies involved, permission to drill in the two fields, and there has been speculation that the cabinet may be split on the issue.

Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband has previously called the last government's approval of Rosebank a “colossal waste of taxpayer money and climate vandalism.”

YouGov polling shows 54% of UK voters think increasing renewables is the best way to secure energy supplies, against 25% who favour drilling for new oil and gas.

Angharad Hopkinson, political campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: “Even the head of the International Energy Agency has made it clear that drilling new fields would do nothing to reduce UK bills or fix the problems caused by Trump’s war in Iran. Rosebank and Jackdaw are just two last ditch attempts for oil companies to profiteer at billpayers’ expense from the little left in the North Sea.

“What we need is home-grown, renewable energy that protects British billpayers from international conflicts, because the fuel is delivered to us free by the sun and the wind.”