Keir Starmer is facing a backlash from Labour MSPs over plans to ban new North Sea oil and gas developments.
Two of Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s top team, Michael Marra and Pauline McNeill, raised concerns at a private group meeting. It was reported that an incoming Labour Government would not grant new oil and gas licenses due to the impact on climate change.
But the plan has been attacked by the GMB and Unite trade unions worried about the impact on tens of thousands of jobs.
Marra and McNeill, who hold the finance and justice portfolios, spoke out about the plans during a meeting earlier this week. Both MSPs are members of the GMB and Marra represents the North East where many oil workers live.
It is understood Ed Miliband, Starmer’s Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero, is being blamed for a stance some in the Scottish party fear could cost votes.
A senior party insider said: “We can’t afford to be out of touch with communities in the North East of Scotland, or playing reckless games with 70,000 jobs. Until there is a credible pathway to net zero, we will rely on current levels of production for decades to come. That’s the reality Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband must understand if they are serious about Scotland.”
A second party source said the position showed Labour is serious about tackling climate change.
SNP MSP Jackie Dunbar said: "In order to meet Scotland's ambitious climate obligations we can’t continue with the unlimited extraction of fossil fuels, but that must not come at the cost of our highly talented and committed energy workforce, nor our energy security.
"Labour’s plan to switch off the taps now would endanger both of those things, while threatening to destroy the very skills we need to make the Just Transition which is necessary to protect the future of the planet.
"Keir Starmer’s approach to oil and gas seems to be to follow the lead set by Margaret Thatcher’s decimation of Scottish coal and steel industries in the 1980s. Unlike Labour the SNP will stand up for jobs in energy and ensure that Scotland can reap the benefits of that energy transition ."
Tory MSP Liam Kerr said: “It’s no wonder Labour MSPs are furious about Keir Starmer’s decision to rule out all new oil and gas development. It compromises our energy security and would throw tens of thousands of skilled Scottish workers and one of our most important industries under the bus.
“Even the SNP are now beginning to realise how misguided and damaging that ban is – though they daren’t say so, in case it offends their Green partners.
“But as usual, Anas Sarwar is happy to toe his party’s line and follow the SNP-Green position, ignoring Scotland’s real priorities. Labour MSPs must tell him clearly that he has got this badly wrong.”
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham hit out at Starmer on Wednesday and said the proposal lacks crucial details.
“Grabbing the headlines is easy, developing a serious plan for more renewable energy is not,” she said.
“Labour must now be very clear that they will not let workers pay the price for the transition to renewable energy. When it comes to jobs we can’t have jam tomorrow.”
GMB General Secretary Gary Smith has also criticised the move: “It would be self-defeating not to maximise extraction from our own oil and gas, and that’s going to be a difficult debate but it’s one we’ll have to face down.”
A Scottish Labour spokesperson said “The skills and expertise of Scotland’s energy workforce will be key to a successful energy transition. We are clear that meeting our climate targets will go hand in hand with protecting and creating jobs in our energy sector.
“Labour will not impose a cliff-edge end to oil and gas production while we transform the U.K. into a clean energy superpower - existing licences will continue and using existing wells sensibly is baked into our plans.
“Labour is committed to a just transition that works for all of our communities – lowering bills for good and creating tens of thousands of skilled, long-term jobs in Scotland and across the UK."
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