JOHN Swinney has called for people in Scotland to unite behind his vision for a Scottish economy powered by the nation’s abundant renewable energy resources.
The First Minister said successive UK Governments have “squandered Scotland’s oil revenues” and accused Labour and the Tories of never seeing Scottish natural resources as “anything more than a cash cow”.
The comments came on the General Election campaign trail, with Swinney visiting a renewable energy company in Leith with local MP Deidre Brock after being forced to abandon the formal announcement of a £5 million funding package for the Scottish islands due to bad weather earlier in the day.
The SNP leader was due to make the announcement during a visit to Shetland on Friday but had to cancel because his scheduled flight could not land in cloudy conditions.
Swinney also took aim at Labour and the Tories’ “foolish commitment to austerity”.
“They are standing in the way of our incredible renewable energy potential,” he said.
“Scotland has won the energy lottery not once but twice – we simply cannot afford to see another generation of opportunity thrown away by a Westminster government with absolutely no interest in Scotland.”
The First Minister also hit out at Labour ditching their pledge to spend £28 billion on green spending.
“That is more than just yet another U-turn from a Labour party seeking to mirror Tory policies at every turn – it is a dereliction of duty that would hold Scotland’s economy back for decades to come,” he said.
“For the Westminster parties, Scotland and our natural resources will never be anything more than a cash cow – only the SNP will put Scotland first and over the course of this campaign, we will set out how Scotland can unite to end austerity to support our industry and ensure that it is Scotland that feels the benefit of our energy.
“Scotland’s abundant natural resources have bankrolled successive UK Governments for generations – at this General Election, Scotland can unite and say that the benefits of Scotland’s energy must be felt in Scotland rather than being squandered by Labour or the Tories.”
