Tories slammed as ‘political wing of fossil fuel industry’ as Sunak family firm signs $1.5bn BP deal before North Sea licences

The Conservative Party has been slammed as being the “political wing of the fossil fuel industry” as Rishi Sunak’s family firm signed a billion-dollar deal with BP before the PM opened North Sea licences.

In May, the Times of India reported that Infosys, the IT company founded by Sunak’s father-in-law, bagged a huge $1.5 billion deal with BP.

On Monday (31 July) the Prime Minister announced the granting of 100 new oil and gas licences in the UK.

Alice Harrison, Fossil Fuels Campaign Leader at Global Witness, accused Sunak of having “set off in his private jet to do the industry’s dirty work in Scotland”, with his decision serving “no-one but big oil executives.’’

The Prime Minister’s most recent announcement has seen some, like former Parliamentary candidate Jim Ferguson, start to speculate on Twitter.

Mr Ferguson posted: “Once again are we seeing yet more personal profiteering from British PM #Sunak? Is Sunak using his position as PM to conduct insider trades and set up deals to make personal fortunes?”

The Indian IT company is owned by the Prime Minister’s wife’s family but Sunak has previously insisted the matter is of “no legitimate public interest”.

Speaking about the need for oil and gas, Sunak said it is “entirely consistent with our plans to get to net zero.”

He said: “If we’re going to need it, far better to have it here at home rather than shipping it here from half way around the world with two, three, four times, the amount of carbon emissions versus the oil and gas we have here at home.”

For Infosys, the deal represents the largest agreement since 2020. As BP’s primary partner the firm will oversee a broad range of services, including development, modernisation, management, and maintenance of applications.

The partnership aims to increase business resilience by modernising BP’s application infrastructure, improving operational efficiencies, and accelerating innovation through more adaptive and agile processes.

Infosys CEO, Salil Parekh, described the deal as a "strategic milestone" in the company’s ongoing relationship with BP. Leigh-Ann Russell, EVP of Innovation & Engineering at BP, also expressed optimism saying the firm is “delighted to further develop our relationship with Infosys to help accelerate our digital transformation and scale growth through tech-enabled operations.”

Green Party politicians have hit back at Rishi Sunak’s latest announcement granting oil and gas licences, saying it would fuel further climate destruction.

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: “To say we need to burn more fossil fuels from the North Sea in order to meet net zero by 2050 is blatant greenwash.

“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the International Energy Agency and the United Nations have all made clear there can be no new fossil fuel projects if there is to be any chance of keeping global temperature rises under 1.5 degrees."

NationalWorld has contacted No 10 for comment.