Britain 'faces relying on EU to keep the lights on this winter' as power imports soar

Britain faces paying a 'staggering' amount to European neighbours to keep the lights on this winter, it has been claimed.

Tory shadow energy secretary Andrew Bowie despaired at how the UK was having to go 'cap in hand' to import energy when it could be 'much more self-sufficient'.

It comes after an analysis of figures from the Office for National Statistics showed a surge in Britain's reliance on the EU and Norway for electricity.

The data revealed the UK had to import a record £4billion worth of power in the year to August, according to The Telegraph.

It also reported the UK spent £473million on power imports in August alone - the highest ever seen in a summer month.

There are said to have only been three other months since 2020 when costs were higher, but all occurred during the Ukraine crisis and in winter, when the demand for energy is much greater.

Since becoming Prime Minister, Andy Burnham has come under increasing pressure to weaken Labour's commitment to its Net Zero agenda.

The Government's efforts to decarbonise the UK's electricity grid by 2030 have been linked to an increase in reliance on energy imports, with domestic capacity claimed to have been left dependent on wind farms with intermittent output.

Mr Burnham is most immediately facing demands to give the go-ahead to the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields in the North Sea.

Rosebank is the UK's largest remaining untapped oil field and lies about 80 miles west of Shetland.

Meanwhile there have been warnings of fuel shortages this winter without the approval of the Jackdaw gas field, which is 150 miles east of Aberdeen.

Proposals for the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields are now in the hands of ministers following the closure of consultations on the two projects, with a decision expected later this week.

The National Energy System Operator (Neso) has already warned Britain will need to import a lot of its power from European neighbours this winter.

It published an early 'Winter Outlook' in June which suggested about 5.5 gigawatts (GW) of the 60GW of generation capacity Britain will need will come from overseas.

'Early price signals suggest Great Britain will be a net importer across the electricity interconnectors this winter,' said the report.

Nick Rosen, a grid expert and author of Overcharged – How the Grid Took Your Power, said: 'We are offshoring our energy security because our own 1920s transmission architecture is buckling under years of corporate neglect.

'But pouring billions into new mega-projects will just lead to worse bottlenecks and higher constraint costs as long as the transmission infrastructure remains broken.'

Mr Bowie said: 'The staggering figures Britain is now paying, simply to ensure the lights stay on in this country, demonstrates just how reliant we have become on imports of energy in this country.

'Britain should not have to go cap in hand to European neighbours, paying for the privilege, when we are energy abundant and when we could be much more self-sufficient if this Government changed course.'