Rosebank Approval Could Undermine UK Sanctions on West Bank Settlements, Campaigners Warn Burnham

Andy Burnham has received warnings that giving the go-ahead to Britain's largest untapped oil field could put the government at odds with its own sanctions targeting illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, BBC News reports.

The Rosebank field, located off the coast of Shetland, is awaiting a long-delayed decision that has become one of the most politically charged energy questions facing the government. At the centre of the dispute is the field's ownership structure and its connection to an Israeli conglomerate that has drawn scrutiny at the United Nations.

Delek Group, an Israeli company, controls Ithaca Energy, which holds a 20% stake in the Rosebank project. Last year, Delek was named in a UN database of businesses accused of providing services or utilities that support settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.

A spokesman for Delek told the Daily Telegraph that the company no longer had any involvement in Israeli settlements and that its inclusion in the UN list was mistaken. The company has said it intends to challenge the listing formally through its legal advisers and has requested that its name be removed from the database immediately.

The timing of the Rosebank decision is awkward for the government, coming weeks after the foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, announced a hardening of the UK's position on settlement-related activity. Those measures target companies and individuals that supply services such as infrastructure to settlement expansion, and they also ban imports of goods originating from illegal settlements.

Environmental campaigners argue that approving Rosebank would create a contradiction at the heart of that policy. Uplift, the group whose legal challenge against the project in 2023 triggered the current delay, has helped coordinate a letter to Burnham and Miliband asking ministers to clarify whether Delek would be captured by the new sanctions regime.

The letter, seen by BBC News, was written by campaigners from Stop Rosebank and Greenpeace with assistance from Uplift. It asks the government to confirm "unequivocally" whether Delek will fall within the planned measures and, if it will not, to explain how that position squares with the stated intention to penalise those who finance or facilitate illegal settlements.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has written separately to Miliband, pressing him on what steps the government would take to ensure that revenue from UK oil and gas production does not end up financing illegal settlements. Polanski described Rosebank as a test of whether Labour's proposed sanctions regime is fit for purpose, arguing that companies blacklisted by the UN over their operations in the settlements should not be bankrolled by North Sea revenues.

The question of whether to approve Rosebank, along with the Jackdaw gas field east of Aberdeen, carries significance well beyond energy policy. The Rosebank project was originally approved by the previous Conservative government in 2023, but that decision was successfully challenged in the courts by campaigners including Uplift, leaving the final call to the Energy Secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh.

The outcome is likely to be read as an indicator of Burnham's broader thinking on oil and gas. Miliband was widely believed to be opposed to Rosebank during his time as Sir Keir Starmer's energy secretary, while Burnham has repeatedly spoken of the need for a "flexible" approach to energy and is thought to favour further drilling where licences already exist in the North Sea.

The decision also carries diplomatic weight. President Trump has pressured successive UK prime ministers to expand North Sea drilling, and while Downing Street is relieved that Trump has not reacted angrily to the recent West Bank sanctions, his administration has made clear that Washington will not follow the same approach.

Ithaca Energy rejected any suggestion of impropriety. A spokesperson said the company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a member of the FTSE 100, governed by the highest standards of corporate governance. The spokesperson added that Ithaca is one of the largest investors in the North Sea and Scotland, a responsible employer, and a major contributor to both the Treasury through tax payments and to UK energy security.

Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, said "not one penny of North Sea oil profits" should go to a company that itself now risks being sanctioned by the UK. The Foreign Office declined to comment when approached by BBC News.

The broader context is stark. Israel has built roughly 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East war, with an estimated 3.3 million Palestinians living alongside them. Settlements are illegal under international law, and recent months have seen a rise in violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel has criticised the UK's sanctions, accusing the government of pursuing "anti-Israel policies". For Burnham, the coming decision on Rosebank will test whether the government's stated commitment to holding settlement financiers to account can survive contact with one of the most significant energy projects in British waters.