Labour and the SNP must stop “taking a wrecking ball” to the North Sea oil and gas sector, the Scottish Conservatives will warn this week.
Holyrood’s largest opposition party will lead a debate on Wednesday on the plight of the industry, in which thousands of jobs are being shed, including 250 at Harbour Energy last week.
Shadow energy and net zero secretary Douglas Lumsden MSP will condemn both Keir Starmer’s and John Swinney’s governments for their opposition to new North Sea oil and gas projects and their failure to set out a credible energy strategy.
He says that the closure of the Grangemouth refinery and other redundancies stem from the hostility of Labour and the SNP to domestic oil and gas, which he describes as “economic vandalism”.
Scottish Conservative shadow energy and net zero secretary Douglas Lumsden MSP said: “Labour and the SNP have taken a wrecking ball to Scotland’s oil and gas sector – and it has to stop now.
“Grangemouth’s closure and the devastating redundancies at Harbour Energy are the latest additions to the thousands of job losses in the industry – and they are directly linked to the reckless hostility of Labour and the SNP towards oil and gas.
“Keir Starmer and John Swinney are guilty of economic vandalism. Their opposition to new oil and gas projects in the North Sea is sapping confidence and investment from the sector and costing skilled workers their livelihoods.
“It’s just common sense, that while we’re still dependent on oil and gas we should be producing it here in Scotland, rather than putting our energy security at risk by relying on costly imports with a higher carbon footprint.
“Neither Keir Starmer nor John Swinney has a credible energy strategy. Renewables alone can’t satisfy our energy needs, which is why the SNP’s stance – in opposing nuclear power, as well as oil and gas – is so reckless.
“The Scottish Conservatives are the only party at Holyrood standing up for domestic oil and gas production, and communities across the North East, despite poll after poll showing that Scots overwhelmingly support it.”