John Swinney and Stephen Flynn have backed Aberdeen’s Low Emission Zone while on a whistle-stop general election tour of the north-east on the day protesters came out to oppose the scheme.
The first minister met SNP candidates and party supporters across the Granite City, Aberdeenshire and Moray ahead of the general election on July 4.
Mr Swinney stopped off at community-led organisation Greyhope Bay on his tour, where he met SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn and spoke to children taking part in an event at the Torry Battery café.
The first minister took questions on a number of issues, including the scandal around former health secretary Michael Matheson’s iPad roaming charges.
Pressed on the LEZ and if he would be going to the protest at Aberdeen’s Castlegate, Mr Swinney said: “Unfortunately my diary doesn’t permit me to be in the city centre at that time.”
Supporting the new zone, which also went live in Dundee and Edinburgh this week, he added: “I think the Low Emission Zone is a really important contribution towards enhancing the air quality and the quality of life of people within the city.
“Obviously we’ve got to take care, and taking forward measures of this type that will work with city centre businesses and the trading community.
“But it’s important to take the steps that are necessary to enhance the local environment and also to ensure that we are making a contribution towards net zero.”
‘Political opportunism’
Mr Flynn – who has been the SNP’s Westminster leader since December 2022 – called the Tories’ opposition to the LEZ “political opportunism” and “the worst kind of politics”.
He added: “They’re trying to treat the people of Aberdeen like fools, as they’re the ones who initiated the LEZ and they’re the ones who approved it when they were in control of the council.
“Now because they think they can make political capital out of it they’re trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the people of Aberdeen.
“But people will see right through that for what it’s worth.”
It came as his Conservative rival for the Aberdeen South seat, former city councillor John Wheeler, and other north-east Tories including MSP Douglas Lumsden joined protesters.
Mr Flynn accused his opponents of trying to “imitate the actions of Boris Johnson” as the Granite City’s LEZ was signed off by Mr Lumsden when he was co-leader of the council in January 2022.
First minister ‘really worried’ about future of oil and gas industry
Also on his trip to Greyhope Bay, Mr Swinney told The P&J he is “really worried” about the situation facing the oil and gas industry, which he says is a “consequence of the tax grabs of the Conservative and Labour parties”.
Arguing the industry needs to be “fiscally sustainable”, he said that Labour’s proposed windfall tax rise to 78%, as well as the increase of the levy to 2029 by the Conservative government, will “undoubtedly have an effect on employment”.
He added: “We need the sector to work with us, to manage the transition towards net zero and I’m very optimistic and confident that we can do that.”
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