Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf has said Labour cannot be trusted on clean energy as political figures reacted to Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to base a publicly-owned GB Energy north of the border.
The Labour leader’s promise was part of a green prosperity plan aimed at making the UK a world leader in clean power by 2030 with a zero-carbon electricity system.
Sir Keir’s party says that as well as cutting energy bills, it would double the number of Scottish jobs in clean energy to 50,000.
Labour has also pledged industrial decarbonisation at Grangemouth and community energy projects.
Speaking to journalists after Sir Keir’s speech in Edinburgh, shadow net zero secretary Ed Miliband said those currently working in North Sea oil and gas would find new jobs in renewables.
He said: “There are 28,000 people directly employed in the North Sea.
“We are absolutely confident that when it comes to those jobs, when it comes to supply chain jobs, we will both offer alternatives – and as Rachel (Reeves) says, the North Sea is going to carry on operating for decades to come.”
Scotland’s First Minister responded to the Labour proposals on Monday as he launched the SNP’s latest prospectus paper on Scottish independence.
Mr Yousaf said: “I am not sure anybody will trust a Labour Party on the green economy just two weeks after they dump their £28 billion green prosperity fund.”
He added that Labour governments had “squandered not tens but hundreds of billions (of pounds) of oil and gas revenue”, and only invested a fraction of this in Scotland.
Mr Yousaf said Sir Keir’s party is now asking Scots to “somehow be thankful that they are going to set up a part of a government department if they win a general election”.
He went on to defend the Scottish Government’s record on green energy, pointing to the £500 million Just Transition fund pledged to help areas such as the north-east of Scotland transition from an economy based on fossil fuels to one focused on renewables.
Meanwhile, climate campaigners welcomed Labour’s commitment to halt new licences for oil exploration if they came to power.
Friends of the Earth Scotland also said they supported plans for a publicly-owned energy company.
Head of campaigns Mary Church said: “Saying no to new licences is an important start but the Labour leader needs to go further and stand up to the oil and gas companies that are ripping off householders and profiting as the planet burns.
“All parties need to acknowledge that no new projects can go ahead and some existing oil wells will have to be phased down before they run dry.
“If Rosebank, or any other development, is approved by the current UK Government, then it will have to be shut down by the next UK government.”
During his speech, Sir Keir indicated that Labour would not interfere with exploration licences which were granted before they came to power.
The Scottish Conservatives accused Labour of betraying the north-east of Scotland.
The party’s energy spokesman Liam Kerr said: “There was a reason Keir Starmer delivered this speech in Edinburgh rather than Aberdeen – because this is an economically and environmentally illiterate policy that betrays north-east Scotland.
“Despite his desperate attempts at respinning it in recent days, the Labour leader is sticking stubbornly to his disastrously-received and catastrophic position of banning all new oil and gas projects.
“That would cost tens of thousands of skilled jobs and destroy communities across the north-east.”
