Tory MPs pressure Johnson to boost UK gas supplies and lift fracking ban

Tory MPs have urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to increase UK gas production and rethink climate policies as the Ukraine crisis destabilises energy markets.

The MPs are concerned about rising energy prices and western reliance on Russian gas amid the Ukraine invasion.

Nearly 40 MPs have called for an end to a UK ban on fracking, a controversial method of shale gas mining.

But government sources told the BBC there were no plans to resume fracking.

The UK's only two shale gas wells, both in Lancashire, are due to be abandoned after the industry regulator ordered them to be sealed.

In a letter to Mr Johnson on Saturday, the MPs implored him to "pause and conduct a review of this decision" to reassess energy security at "a time of such geopolitical strife".

But the BBC understands the government's position has not changed and the fracking ban will remain until there is compelling scientific evidence that it can manage and predict earthquakes associated with the process.

In a recent Twitter thread, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said fracking would not lower energy prices in the short term.

To improve energy security, Mr Kwarteng said the government would back gas production in the North Sea during the transition to renewables such as wind power.

Those reassurances have not assuaged the concerns of some Tory MPs. In recent months, as global gas prices reached record highs, they have been pressuring the government to relax its climate policies.

That pressure has only intensified since the Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, which has sent energy prices soaring globally and exposed EU reliance on Russia gas supplies.

Russia provides about 5% of the UK's gas supplies, in comparison to about 40% of the EU's.

But former foreign minister and Tory MP Sir Alan Duncan told the BBC there was a risk of "banning our own supplies" by sanctioning Russian energy firms.

"Now, we of course, want to disadvantage Russia as an essential tool of war," he said. "But we don't want to disadvantage ourselves."

Meanwhile some MPs from a Conservative group known as the Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG) have been pushing for a rethink of the UK's net-zero policy.

Led by Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, the NZSG has warned of political consequences for Mr Johnson at the next election, should he stand by the policy.

The fracking letter to the prime minister was organised by Mr Mackinlay and former Brexit minister Steve Baker.

The letter came as Nigel Farage, the former Ukip and Brexit Party leader, announced the launch of a campaign to push for a Brexit-style referendum on the UK's net-zero target.

In an article for the Mail On Sunday newspaper, Mr Farage said the "political class in Westminster has made a decision on behalf of the rest of us without any public debate being held".

Questioning the costs of net zero, he said his political movement, Britain Means Business, would hold rallies under the slogan "Vote power, not poverty".

When asked about the campaign, a government source said the vast majority of MPs were elected on manifesto commitments to deliver net zero by 2050.

While no Tory MPs have publicly backed a referendum on net zero, some have expressed scepticism of the policy.

On Sunday, former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said policymakers needed to be "open and honest with the British public about how much all this will cost them and how much change to our everyday lives may be required".

But one report by a committee of MPs - released last week - said the government had "no reliable estimate of what the process of implementing the net-zero policy is actually likely to cost".