Streeting sets out plans to welcome 20,000 scientists to UK in leadership pitch

Wes Streeting said he would welcome 20,000 world-leading scientists to Britain and funnel tax money from new North Sea oil licences into cheaper energy projects, as he continued to make his pitch for the Labour leadership.

Mr Streeting accused opponents of new North Sea drilling of opening the door to a Reform UK government by keeping energy costs high and therefore losing support for net zero.

He will make a speech next week to set out policies ahead of a potential leadership contest expected by many in Westminster within the coming months.

Mr Streeting resigned as health secretary in May in protest at Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership, which has looked precarious since Labour’s drubbing in May’s local and devolved elections.

The Prime Minister’s fragile authority suffered a further blow with the resignations of John Healey as defence secretary and Al Carns as armed forces minister over what they said was inadequate funding for the Defence Investment Plan.

Mr Streeting will take part in any contest, which could eventually be triggered if Andy Burnham succeeds in his bid to return to Westminster in next week’s Makerfield by-election.

Mr Carns, asked whether he would run, told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I’m very good at running.”

In the latest in a series of policies he has detailed, Mr Streeting said he would loosen immigration restrictions to attract “tomorrow’s Nobel Prize winners” to the UK.

The £250 million global talent programme would seek to benefit from what he described as Donald Trump’s hostility towards science in the US and draw 20,000 high-achievers to Britain over the next three years.

Mr Streeting said: “We should open our door to the best and the brightest.

“Trump is saying to world-leading scientists, engineers, AI experts – you’re not welcome here.

“I would tell them: we’ll welcome you with open arms.

“I’d introduce a Global Talent Programme to actively recruit 20,000 of the world’s best scientists, engineers, and AI experts to our country.

“They are building the future and I want them to build it here.

“Voters who want lower levels of migration aren’t opposed to inviting tomorrow’s Nobel Prize winners to make their discoveries here in Britain.”

Mr Streeting, who has backed issuing new oil drilling licences for the North Sea, accused opponents of opening the door to a Reform UK government by losing support for net zero by keeping energy costs high.

The Ilford North MP said the Government should allow production to begin at the Jackdaw gas field and Rosebank oil and gas field.

If he won the keys to No 10, Mr Streeting would use the tax receipts from the two new fields to fund new heat pumps, home insulation, batteries and other electrification projects that cut household or business energy bills and reduce carbon emissions.

The Labour leadership hopeful said: “Businesses and households are held back by high energy costs.

“The tax receipts from new North Sea oil and gas fields should be funnelled into cheaper energy: insulation, heat pumps, and electrification to cut bills and emissions.

“Opponents of the North Sea say it sets the wrong example to the world.

“But the worst example we can set is that net zero can only be delivered on the backs of the poor and working people’s jobs.

“This is the route to Nigel Farage walking into Downing Street and destroying our renewables industry.

“The best example we can set is to show that the net zero and growth agendas are not in competition.

“That we can cut bills and cut emissions at the same time.”

Mr Streeting’s speech next week will focus on his vision for “progressive capitalism”, which he wrote in a Financial Times article also includes investing in home-grown energy, defence and data infrastructure.