IAN Murray could not give a straight answer as to when Scottish households can expect energy bills to be reduced by GB Energy.
The Scotland Secretary was interviewed by Gary Robertson for BBC’s Good Morning Scotland broadcast on Friday.
During the election, Labour pledged they would cut household energy bills by £300, but instead, customers have seen bills rise by £170 since last July, and are set to increase even further from April 1.
Robertson pressed the issue to the Scotland minister, asking: “You promised in your manifesto that you would bring energy bills down, when’s that going to happen?”
Murray responded: “This is a tough nut to crack, of course, and we've just talked about defence, the reflection of the global instability in terms of what's happening at the moment, particularly in Ukraine is reflected in everybody's energy bills or clean energy by 2030 mission.”
He continued: “We need to get the grid sorted, which is a huge problem in terms of regulation and planning. We need to get building the renewables.”
Robertson interjected: “But it hasn't happened so far … You haven't lowered bills, have you?”
Murray then said: “Well, that's exactly what GB Energy's remit is to do is to get to this clean power emission by Labour delivered for Scotland, lowering bills. I don't think anybody would have thought that we would lower bills on the day after the election.”
He continued: "Bills will become lower when we have energy security.”
GB energy boss Juergen Maier, in his first major broadcast interview, said the Labour’s General Election pledge of 1000 jobs for Aberdeen could take 20 years.
When pressed on this, Murray could not provide a straight answer as to when we can expect to see new jobs: “Well, Gary, you know as well as I do that what he was referring to is actual jobs who get a GB energy pay packet.
"It's not about how many people work in the GB Energy HQ. It's about how many jobs it creates in terms of the renewables industry.”
