Commenting on the Offshore Petroleum Licencing Bill, which passed its Second Reading in the House of Commons tonight, with the government winning by 283 votes to 211, Greenpeace UK’s political campaigner, Ami McCarthy, said:

“The government may have won this vote but the planet and everyone on it has lost as a result. Literally no-one benefits from this nonsensical, climate-wrecking Bill except the oil and gas industry and its shareholders.

“The government has failed to act in the national interest tonight and those MPs who chose not to rebel have placed themselves on the wrong side of history. Voters don’t want more oil and gas, they want cheap, clean renewable power and a safe and habitable planet. And this shameful dereliction of duty will come back to haunt the Conservatives at the next election.”