Sir Keir Starmer sought to reassure industrial communities that his party’s green energy plans would not leave them behind, as he warned that the “moment for decisive action is now”.
Labour’s plans to ban new North Sea oil and gas exploration have sparked anger from trade union backers amid fears of job losses, but the party leader insisted that not moving ahead with the transition to clean energy would represent a missed opportunity for British workers.
Setting out Labour’s green energy plans in a speech in Edinburgh, he said his party’s proposals would cut bills and create new jobs – promising 50,000 new jobs could be created in Scotland alone.
In his address, he sought to address concerns that the party’s plans could decimate industrial communities or result in mass job losses among oil and gas workers.
The green energy transition, he said, is “asking deep and difficult questions of all of us, and I fully accept, especially here, fossil fuel energy plays a huge role in the Scottish economy”.
“It’s also part of the social fabric. Communities depend on it. The jobs it provides, good jobs for working people, they’re precious,” he said.
“I’m not going to give you a moral sermon about the urgency of climate change, everyone gets that argument.
“What I offer is a plan: a new course through stormy waters, a bridge to a better future.
If we wait until North Sea oil and gas runs out, the opportunities this change can bring for Scotland and your community will pass us by, and that would be a historic mistake— Sir Keir Starmer
“Let me say directly to those people in Scotland, nervous about the change this mission requires – I know the ghosts industrial change unearths…
“Deep down, we all know this has to happen eventually and that the only question is when.
“So, in all candour, the reality is this, the moment for decisive action is now.
“If we wait until North Sea oil and gas runs out, the opportunities this change can bring for Scotland and your community will pass us by, and that would be a historic mistake.”
The plans set out by the party on Monday include a local power plan to allow households across the UK to receive discounts on their bills if their area signs up to new green initiatives.
The party’s proposed new public body GB Energy would be based in Scotland, Sir Keir said, as he called it a “shared project owned by all four nations on these islands”.
The body would make available up to £600 million in funding for councils and up to £400 million in low-interest loans each year for communities.
Elsewhere, Labour said that the ban on new onshore wind would also be axed within months of the party entering government, with new measures introduced to ensure relevant regulators have a net-zero mandate.
The party is pledging to take up to £1,400 off household bills and £53 billion off energy bills for businesses by 2030 with its plans.
“We will set new rules – as a condition of entry – on good work, decent pay and union recognition, but we will also create a new incentive, a direct response to the quickening pace the world is setting on the jobs of the future: a British Jobs Bonus that will attract new investment, new jobs, new supply chains into our deprived industrial heartlands and will reward companies that back working people,” Sir Keir said.
Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has loomed over debates about energy subsidies and state support, with Sir Keir warning that the UK cannot be left behind in the race to embrace green technology.
But he also faced questions about the scale of the party’s net-zero ambition, denying to reporters that the refusing to tear up existing licences made him a “hypocrite”.
“The position we’ve taken consistently on this is: no new exploration licences. Where there are existing licences, and that includes any that are granted between now and the next election, we’re not going to interfere. We know the impact that would have on investors.”
Standing beside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, he rejected any suggestion that he could not be trusted to deliver on his pledges after the party backtracked on its £28 billion green prosperity plan in a bid to underline its commitment to “financial stability”.
“We are doubling down. We’re not backing off… Inflation now is in a completely different place to where it was two years ago because the Tories have made such a mess and done such damage to the economy. But at the same time as we work through our plans and set out what we will do in years one, two and three, showing just how serious we are, it’s clear that we can ramp up that £28 billion.
“When I say to people in the sector that we will partner, that we want clean power by 2030, they don’t say you’re somehow backing down or lacking ambition, they say ‘wow, that is a real challenge’.
“There’s nothing here to read into any sense of lacking ambition or backing down,” Sir Keir said.
Mr Sarwar, who attended the event alongside shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and shadow climate secretary Ed Miliband, said he would not discourage anyone to enter a career in the oil and gas industry.
Sir Keir used the speech to hit out at both the SNP and the Conservatives, accusing them of failing to seize the opportunities in green energy.
Speaking amid the fallout of the Commons Privileges Committee report into former prime minister Boris Johnson, the Labour leader said: “Doesn’t it speak volumes that Labour is today launching a plan for the next generation of jobs while the Tories are squabbling back in Westminster?”
