A bid to permit licences to explore new oil and gas fields has been rejected by MPs.
The Commons voted 108 to 323, majority 215, to throw out a Tory amendment to the King’s Speech which pressed ministers to approve drilling at Rosebank and Jackdaw oil fields.
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho accused Labour whips of telling MPs to “vote to shut down the North Sea” on Tuesday.
In the King’s Speech, the Government reiterated its manifesto commitment not to issue new licences to explore new fields.
Under its Energy Independence Bill it intends to accelerate the development of offshore wind, hydrogen and grid technologies.
Ms Coutinho warned during the debate in the Commons that “only a complete whacko” would scale down North Sea oil and gas production.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband defended his party’s approach, telling MPs £90 billion of private investment had gone towards “clean energy” since the 2024 general election.
Existing oil and gas fields will stay open for their lifetime, under Labour’s plans.
“We’re not in favour of a ‘turning off the taps’ position but, I’ll just be honest with the House, nor are we in favour of a drilling every last drop,” Mr Miliband said.
The Bill will also give offshore workers in renewables the same employment rights as their counterparts in the oil and gas sectors, he said.
Ms Coutinho said the Government’s position would leave the UK “more reliant on higher-emission gas from Qatar or the US”, or funnelling “billions of pounds to Norway to import gas from the very same basin” in the North Sea.
She added: “This is the single greatest act of industrial self-harm we have seen in a generation.
“Only a complete whacko would respond to a supply shortage by shutting down their own oil and gas industry.”
Ms Coutinho said a call for “reindustrialisation” was “just a meaningless slogan unless you back the North Sea, axe the carbon taxes that are killing British industry, and cut the cost of energy”.
The Conservatives’ motion also stated the Government’s proposal “will have a particularly negative impact on Aberdeen, the north-east of Scotland and wider UK economy”.
SNP Westminster leader Dave Doogan asked whether the Government would be forced into a “screeching U-turn” if UK oil and gas production fell faster than the rate of consumption.
Mr Miliband said the SNP “has had more positions on this than the Kama Sutra”.
The Energy Secretary had earlier said: “While we remain exposed to the fossil fuel rollercoaster, we are deeply vulnerable as a country.
“Our sovereignty, our security and the British people’s living standards are undermined by this dependence and exposure because – for a simple reason – we do not control the price of oil and gas, which is set on international markets.”
He added: “There is an answer staring us in the face: energy independence through clean home-grown power we control.
“Clean home-grown energy that comes from our own winds, sun, and nuclear resources, that cannot be disrupted by foreign wars, that cannot be controlled by the whims of petrostates and dictators, that means our national security and energy security cannot be held hostage.”
Labour’s Torcuil Crichton said some people in his Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles) constituency find the scale of the transition to renewables “overwhelming”.
He said the North Sea had been a source of wealth for Scotland.
“Out to the west is the Wild Atlantic, from where the wealth of wind will provide and power the transition away from carbons and renewables,” he continued.
Mr Crichton said North Sea workers wanted “certainty and an orderly transition, but that puts their jobs at the centre of this transition”.
The Tory motion also noted with “regret the cancellation of a third large-scale nuclear power plant at Wylfa” in North Wales, after work stopped on a multibillion-pound development in 2019 and has not been revived in full.
However, energy minister Michael Shanks reiterated the Government’s commitment to the North Sea.
Mr Shanks warned against misconceptions that the North Sea is “not a maturing basin in natural decline (or) nostalgia for some new age of discovery”.
He said the Government would introduce transitional energy certificates which will enable tie backs and manage existing oilfields for their lifetime.
He added: “The North Sea made Britain an energy nation, this Bill ensures that it will remain one.”
