The government approved drilling in the Jackdaw gasfield to boost energy security. This move shows pragmatism from the prime minister and chancellor John Healey. Many people said the decision helps avoid importing gas from the Middle East. It also brings tax revenue, though environmental groups remain unhappy with the choice.

Plus, why Ed Davey believes the prime minister is about to call an early election

Good morning. George Parker here, standing in for Stephen Bush, on a morning when the government has approved drilling in the Jackdaw gasfield, part of Andy Burnham's efforts to show he has a growth strategy a week before the Budget.

It will go down well in Scotland and with those who have pondered the wisdom of slowing down drilling in the North Sea even as we import gas from the Middle East.

The whole debate seems to have been dragging on forever but now at least we have a decision and the prospect of some good old tax revenues in future, along with some homegrown British carbon emissions.

Inside Politics is edited by Georgina Quach. Follow George on Bluesky and Georgina on Bluesky. Read the previous edition of the newsletter here. Please send gossip, thoughts and feedback to insidepolitics@ft.com

Continuity and conviction

Today's Jackdaw decision will be presented as the proof of a decisive "pragmatism" from the new prime minister and from chancellor John Healey, who is expected to turn up in Aberdeen later.

It will also be billed as a boost for energy security at a time of global conflict, but you don't have to be a cynic to note that the decision does not mark a sudden swerve from the Starmer administration.

Burnham has accepted the argument that gas imports from the Middle East have a much higher carbon content than the domestic equivalent. Not only does the gas have to be turned into liquefied natural gas (LNG) -- which consumes energy -- but it then has to be shipped across the globe.

Plus even under Net Zero 2050 the UK is expected to keep using gas for another 25 years -- and beyond -- albeit abated by carbon capture and storage.

The only argument against authorising Jackdaw was that the UK should be setting an example to the world in restraining carbon emissions. A decision on the separate -- and more controversial -- Rosebank oilfield is still awaited.

Those who will be happy: Donald Trump, business leaders, the Tories, Reform UK, Unite the Union, the GMB, Scottish Labour MPs, the exchequer.

Those who will be unhappy: environmental groups, the Green Party, Ed Miliband (no longer responsible for the decision) and some of the Labour membership.

But don't be fooled into thinking that this is a big departure from Sir Keir Starmer's government. Far from it.

1) Starmer's manifesto promised to end new exploration licences in the North Sea and that will, apparently, continue under his successor.

2) Starmer also agreed to allow lots of "tiebacks" under which energy companies could drill for new oil and gas deposits next to existing hubs. Burnham will follow through that tieback policy in an imminent "energy independence bill" that will come out in the next fortnight.

3) Starmer made it clear that he wanted both Jackdaw and Rosebank to get the go-ahead (although the then energy secretary Ed Miliband tried to delay the decisions).

The point is that neither project fell under the manifesto ban on new licences because they already had licences from the previous Tory government.

The problem was that the Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled last year that both sites had been unlawfully approved because the government had failed to take into account the climate impact of burning extracted oil and gas from the sites.

Energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh's decision to approve Jackdaw is therefore less politically difficult than ripping up the manifesto pledge.

The main difference between Burnham and Starmer on this particularly thorny issue? Burnham is more eager to make the case for the decision.

Election in . . . December?

Meanwhile, I bumped into Ed Davey at the coffee bar in the House of Commons this week, fresh from surviving his brush with an abortive Liberal Democrat leadership coup, and he seemed pretty chipper.

Why might that be? Davey is a pretty cheery person in any circumstance, but I'm told he thinks Andy Burnham may be about to call a general election and the Lib Dems have pencilled in December 10. Kemi Badenoch has also put her party on alert for a pre-Christmas election.

Why would this particularly suit Davey? Think about it: at the moment he's struggling for relevance. If Burnham calls an election, most polls suggest Labour would lose its whopping majority and it's likely he'd be straight on the phone to the Lib Dems.

Then Davey would suddenly have renewed purpose, pulling the strings in a hung parliament. It's one of a number of reasons why I think Burnham will not be going to the polls any time soon.

Now try this

I'm a sucker for melodrama, so I was always going to love Golden Boy, featuring a superb Josh O'Connor as a tortured violinist/boxer (some have claimed the plot is a bit contrived) trying to make something of his life in 1930s New York.

Running at the Almeida in Islington, it's a superbly staged morality play packed with money and violence and with some standout performances, notably from Hayley Squires. Tickets may be hard to come by but it's definitely worth trying.

I also enjoyed Gang of Three recently (Stephen Bush is another fan, as he wrote in Inside Politics during its original run). It takes us into the exciting world of Labour politics in the 1970s and early 1980s, leading up to the formation of the centrist SDP.

About to go on tour, it may not sound like a great night out, but the power dynamics of three old Oxford friends -- Roy Jenkins, Denis Healey and Anthony Crosland -- trying to save Labour from its doomed drift to the left are compelling.

Incidentally, I once had lunch with Jenkins at Simpson's in the Strand, a meal so bibulous and extravagant in its anecdotage that the seasons actually changed while we were dining: warm and sunny when we entered, snowing when we left.