Local Labour MP Henry Tufnell, has been accused by Pembrokeshire Friends of the Earth of preferring the “drill-baby-drill” tactics of Donald Trump to the energy policies of his own government.

In March, the MP for South Pembrokeshire had an article published in a national newspaper in which he attacked the UK Government for saying no to new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.

Pembrokeshire Friends of the Earth has responded in correspondence which accused him of choosing ‘right-wing propaganda’ ahead of thoroughly researched expert information.

A spokesperson for the group said: “The UK Energy Research Council has stated that ‘squeezing additional oil and gas production from the UK will have negligible impact on the UK cost of living ‘.

“It concludes that the priority for the UK should be to capture ‘the full economic and social opportunities offered by renewable energy’ and describes the sort of arguments put forward by Mr Tufnell as ‘a delusion’.

“The MP’s claim that further drilling for North sea oil and gas would boost employment is also kicked into touch. The Climate Change Committee has concluded that job losses in the fossil fuel sector due to the transition to net zero would be outweighed by ‘extensive job creation’ in sectors such as renewable energy, retrofitting and electric vehicles.

“And the MP’s call for the removal of carbon taxes in manufacturing shows a massive ignorance of the threat posed by climate change and the urgent need to reduce it.

“The fact that the MP has refused to reply to our letter, despite promising to do so in a face-to-face conversation in Narberth in April, suggests that he either has more respect for a London tabloid newspaper than for his own constituents or is having difficulty justifying the viewpoints he presented,” they added.