PM warned Rosebank oil field could breach West Bank sanctions

The prime minister has been warned that approving a controversial oil field risks contravening his own sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The government will soon have to make a long-awaited decision on whether to go ahead with Rosebank, Britain's largest untapped oil field, which sits off Shetland.

Environmental campaigners and Green Party leader Zack Polanski have both separately written to Andy Burnham and the foreign secretary to raise concerns about Rosebank's links to an Israeli company, Delek Group.

Last year Delek Group was included in a UN database of firms which allegedly provide services or utilities to support settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.

A spokesman for the company told the Daily Telegraph , external it no longer had any involvement in Israeli settlements and was wrongly included in the database.

Delek Group controls Ithaca Energy, which holds a 20% stake in Rosebank.

The campaign group Uplift, whose legal challenge against the Rosebank project in 2023 led to the ongoing delay over a decision on exploration, has helped organise a letter to Burnham and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband.

In a letter seen by BBC News, campaigners from Stop Rosebank and Greenpeace, with assistance from Uplift, have asked the government to clarify whether Delek will fall foul of the sanctions announced last month.