CAMPAIGNERS slammed the government today for refusing to hand over a secret fracking report that is believed to shed doubt on the viability of the harmful industry.

Greenpeace has mounted a year-long legal campaign to force ministers to release the report of a government investigation into fracking in Britain, produced by the Cabinet Office in 2016.

Campaigners argue that the suppression of the documents “cast further doubt” on whether Tory ministers intend to continue their fracking moratoriam after the general election.

Labour’s shadow minister for the cabinet office, Jon Trickett, warned the move “serves as a stark warning for what lies ahead if Boris Johnson is re-elected.”

He added that the  government’s failure to release the report, in defiance of a court order, reflects how the Tories have operated over the last 10 years.

“Whether denying talks to sell off our NHS or suppressing a report on foreign interference in our politics, this Tory government repeatedly operates in secret and against the public interest,” Mr Trickett charged.

The Cabinet Office first rejected Greenpeace’s freedom of information request for the report last year, claiming its release “could call into question the industry’s viability.”

Following the rejection, an information tribunal ruled that the report should be handed over, giving the government a deadline of November 25.

But the government again refused, arguing that all parts of the report were exempt under the Freedom of Information Act.  

Claire Stephenson, from campaign group Frack Free Lancashire, said it was “utterly unsurprising” that the Tories had withheld a report on fracking.

“Our community has had fracking forced upon them, against their wishes, as the government sided with big business and profit over people and their health and lives,” she told the Star, commenting on the years-long battle her community have fought against Caudrilla’s drilling site at Preston New Road.

“Over the last five years upwards, we have seen increasingly bad behaviour by those in positions of power, where reports on fracking have been suppressed, industry given a free pass with regulation breached and goalpost shifting, lobbyists gaining access and favours from government … the list is endless.

“We need a shift in government, where people come before profit and our voices are heard. Enough is enough.”