Rishi Sunak’s oil and gas bill will do “nothing” to reduce energy bills, improve gas and electricity security or tackle climate change, campaigners have warned.

Friends of the Earth (FoE) accused the prime minister of “relentless posturing” with the legislation, which has its second reading and a vote in the Commons later on Monday.

The bill would allow for an annual licensing regime for oil and gas exploration contracts. Experts have said that the UK should not be granting any new licences if it wants to meet its climate targets.

“As people face another winter of soaring energy bills, the prime minister’s relentless posturing and efforts to woo the oil and gas industry, including through this harmful bill, will do nothing to improve energy security or lower our bills,” Jamie Peters, head of climate at FoE, said.

“Senior MPs from his own party are speaking out over the huge damage this policy is doing at home and globally, as it adds more fuel to the fire of the UK’s backtracking on key climate commitments, including the recent COP28 agreement to transition away from fossil fuels.

“Unleashing the UK’s huge potential for homegrown renewable energy and improving the energy efficiency of our homes would cut bills, create jobs, lower emissions, improve energy security and boost the economy.

“In the run up to a general election this year, voters want to see strong green policies that don’t leave us behind in the global race to a zero-carbon future.”

Alok Sharma, the former business and energy secretary, has said he will not vote for the bill. Chris Skidmore has also said he will not support the government and has signed in protest at the legislation.

However the government is still expected to win the vote comfortably.

The public inquiry into the scandal has uncovered dozens of covert recordings of senior Post Office staff – including former CEO Paula Vennells – discussing the scandal, according to The Times, Adam Forrest reports.

Around 80 recordings will be sent to participants, including former Post Office postmasters, in the days ahead. “They’re conversations with Post Office top brass including Paula Vennells. It’s very damning,” an inquiry source said.

Ms Vennells has reportedly hired the top legal firm Mishcon de Reya to represent her as she prepares to give evidence at the public inquiry later this year.

She said in 2022 that she was “truly sorry for the suffering caused to wrongly prosecuted sub-postmasters and their families”.

Nigel Farage said Sir Keir Starmer should explain why he did not intervene in the Horizon IT scandal while he was director of public prosecutions at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) from 2008 to 2013, Adam Forrest reports.

“He has serious questions to answer,” the ex-Brexit Party leader tweeted on X.

The CPS was not in charge of any of the appeals which have been launched since the scandal first broke. Sir Keir has today called for prosecutions to be “taken out of the hands” of the Post Office and be given to the CPS.

Ed Davey is being made a “scapegoat” for the Post Office scandal, his former colleague and party leader Vince Cable has claimed.

Mr Davey has been accused by Conservatives of not asking the “right questions” during his stint as Post Office minister in the early years of the coalition government.

He has denied any wrongdoing, saying Post Office bosses lied to him on an “industrial scale”.

“This is election year and it’s quite good for somebody to try to make a scapegoat of a Lib Dem,” Mr Cable told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme.

Rishi Sunak has declined to give his backing to the Conservative Party’s candidate in the Wellingborough byelection.

Helen Harrison will stand in the Northamptonshire constituency after Peter Bone, her partner, was ousted in a recall petition after he indecently exposed himself to a staff member who he trapped in the bathroom of a hotel room.

“Candidate selection is done locally, so local members in their area can choose a given candidate,” the prime minister told an event in Lancashire earlier.

“That’s how it works in our party. We believe in empowering people locally that’s how we do it.”