Former health secretary Wes Streeting has suggested cutting national insurance and issuing new North Sea oil drilling licenses as he continues to make his leadership pitch.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Streeting set out a series of policies ahead of a potential leadership contest expected within the coming months in Westminster, including drilling for oil and gas as he claims it would raise tax revenue.

“We do have to take climate change globally much more seriously and go aggressively towards more renewable energy,” he said.

He also backed his potential opponent Andy Burnham’s support for more devolution and a more regulated market as “a good pro-fairness thing to do”.

‘Targeted’ NI cuts

Since leaving the cabinet just over two weeks ago and claiming he will challenge Kier Starmer in any leadership contest, Streeting has been steering away from the Labour parties policies.

The former health secretary has already said the UK’s future relies on “one day” rejoining the European Union, and called for what he referred to as “wealth tax”.

However, Streeting is now eyeing “targeted” cuts to National Insurance contributions to tackle unemployment amongst young people, reversing the move previously introduced by Rachel Reeves.

“We have to make it easier for business to employ young people and for businesses to take that risk on someone,” Streeting said.

“I think we should be thinking actively about how to incentivise, whether that’s through targeted reduction in employers’ National Insurance or other kinds of recruitment and retention incentives,” he said.

This follows former health secretary Alan Milburn earlier this week publishing a review into the rising number of young people not in employment, education, or training – referred to as NEETS.

Streeting’s suggestions echo those from former prime minister Sir Tony Blair in an essay published last week criticising some of Labour’s policies and accusing the Government of lacking a “coherent plan”.

He told the Times that Labour had risen to power “underprepared” and “lacking any sort of intellectual curiosity”.