Anas Sarwar defends Labour’s North Sea strategy as ‘good for north-east’ despite job fears

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has promised his party’s energy plans will be “good for the north-east” despite concerns it could risk jobs.

There was a fierce backlash from industry and trade union leaders after it emerged Labour is preparing to block new oil and gas licences under a UK Labour government.

The party has appeared to soften its stance in recent days, with UK leader Sir Keir Starmer stating it would be “wrong” to simply end domestic oil and gas production.

Speaking ahead of Sir Keir delivering a major speech on energy in Edinburgh on Monday, Mr Sarwar insisted the plans will benefit the region and Scotland.

The party has pledged to create thousands of green manufacturing jobs at Scottish ports, if elected to form a new government at Westminster.

This could see investment injected into regions along the east coast, including the north-east and Forth and Tay.

‘There will be no cliff edge’

The Scottish Labour leader told the BBC on Sunday he believes the plans are “deliverable” and “good for the north-east, good for Aberdeen, and good for the UK”.

But there are concerns jobs in the North Sea could be at risk under Labour’s plan not to grant any new licences for oil and gas once in power.

Mr Sarwar denied the move would inevitably lead to closure of platforms and job losses in the north-east.

He said: “There is not a suggestion of any cliff-edge, there will be no cliff edge.

“There will be no turning off of the tap. We are clear that oil and gas will play a significant role in our energy industry for decades to come.

“What we’re talking about is building the strategic partnerships in order to actually deliver the green revolution.

“We need the oil and gas industry, all of those businesses, the scale of the investment that they’re able to make, to partner with government to deliver on this objective.”

But unions, including GMB and Unite, have lambasted Labour over the “naive” green energy plan which they claim will create a “cliff edge” with oil and gas extraction.

Licences will be honoured

The Scottish Labour leader said he met with industry leaders earlier this week and made it “really clear” the party will honour all “existing licences”.

Sir Keir is understood to have given assurances he will not block the development of the Rosebank oil and gas field west of Shetland if a Labour government comes into power.

Mr Sarwar said: “Any new licences that are issued between now and the next Labour government, we will of course honour them as well.”

Labour has vowed to double the number of jobs in low carbon sectors, supporting 50,000 green energy jobs in Scotland alone.

It has also made a pledge to create Great British Energy, a new publicly-owned clean energy company.

But Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attacked Labour’s position on North Sea oil and gas earlier this week, claiming it “jeopardises 200,000 jobs”.

Liam Kerr, Tory energy spokesman at Holyrood, said: “Anas Sarwar is in complete denial over the tens of thousands of skilled Scottish jobs Labour’s oil plans would put at risk.”

The energy debate prompted Labour councillors in Aberdeen to take action to ensure their party do not turn their back on workers in the region.

New leader of Aberdeen City Council’s Labour group, Tauqeer Malik, said: “It does not make economic sense for Scotland and the rest of the UK to halt development in the North Sea.”