LABOUR were left red-faced after the prelude to a major press conference descended into farce.
Journalists said the party had originally arranged for a green hydrogen bus to ferry the media to Leith for Keir Starmer’s speech on Labour’s new energy policies but that it was swapped last minute for a diesel model.
Andy Philip, the head of politics at publisher DC Thomson, said: “An auspicious start as the hydrogen bus laid on to the Labour energy event in Edinburgh is switched for a diesel one.”
Severin Carrell, The Guardian’s Scotland editor, tweeted a picture of the bus saying the model was not a hydrogen-powered vehicle.
An auspicious start as the hydrogen bus laid on to the Labour energy event in Edinburgh is switched for a diesel one. Off to see what Kier Starmer can say in his plans and how the north-east in particular fits into it all. https://t.co/DNXhItn88s
— Andy Philip (@andydphilip) June 19, 2023
Things got even worse when the bus became lost on the way to the venue with a journalist having to give directions to the harried driver.
Carrell tweeted: “Now the bus is lost. We are now pointing west down Ferry Road. The venue is near The Shore in Leith docks.”
He added: “A Daily Mail reporter is now directing the [Labour] diesel bus to the venue.”
Philips said the driver had to perform a three point turn on Ferry Road before the press pack arrived at the venue.
He tweeted: “Update from the road as bus now lost in Leith, hilariously. Going round in circles, if you will.
Now the bus is lost. We are now pointing west down Ferry Road. The venue is near The Shore in Leith docks @UKLabour #cleanenergy https://t.co/DTgKOgEdPs
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) June 19, 2023
“Luckily an intrepid Edinburgh based reporter knows the way and is currently directing the driver, who is having a mare. Had an excellent view of the new electric tram line from the city centre though.
“Success. 45 minutes and a three point turn on ferry road, performed by a passing Lothian bus driver. We have been driven down the road to the labour event.”
Once the press pack arrived at the venue, Starmer delivered a speech on Labour’s plans to meet net zero.
He argued for continued use of fossil fuels while banning new North Sea oil and gas exploration and said the headquarters of a proposed new public energy company would be in Scotland.
Starmer said: “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.
“An error, for the future of Scotland, as big as the Thatcher government closing the coal mines, while frittering away the opportunity of the North Sea.”
