Starmer’s North Sea oil plan might be a welcome gift for the Scottish Tories
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Free gifts are fairly uncommon commodities in politics. All the more so if they are from Labour to Tory.
However, that’s a pretty good way of viewing what we’re being told is Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to shut down all North Sea oil and gas production if he wins the next election.
It would probably prove, at the very least, to be a nice present from the Labour leader to Conservatives everywhere, given that most voters are worried about the country’s energy future and depriving Britain of the North Sea’s bounty is seen by many as a risky prospect.
However, for the Scottish Tories, the move must be seen as something approaching manna from heaven. After all, the party’s highest hopes of winning seats – and in some cases, winning back seats they once held – lie in the north east of Scotland, where 90,000 good jobs still depend on oil and gas.
They were already hopeful of making gains at the expense of the SNP on the back of Nicola Sturgeon’s alliance with her Scottish Green coalition partners, which aimed to shut down North Sea production. And there has been every sign that Humza Yousaf, her uber-loyal successor, would be continuing that policy.
But if Labour is hellbent on killing off what was, and still is, an amazingly successful part of the Scottish economy, then the Tories will be left as the only political party prepared to defend the oil industry jobs.
Furthermore, winning those seats in the North East should be assisted by the thousands of Labour voters who are now learning that their party, which was, after all, mainly responsible for the development of the oil fields, is now hell-bent on closing them down.
And therefore, the best place for these Labour supporters to take their votes is straight across to the Scottish Tories who are the only people prepared to safeguard this vital industry and essential energy provider.
The Greens and Liberal Democrats are already hopeless cases in this respect. So what’s a Labour voter to do except vote Tory, no matter how alien it might feel?
Liam Kerr, the Scottish Tories’ shadow energy secretary, has written to Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, urging him to clarify whether his party planned to throw oil and gas workers “under a bus”, before adding: “Labour’s approach to the North Sea has been nothing short of a gut punch to the industry and tens of thousands of Scots who work in it.”
I’m afraid Mr Kerr has probably written to the wrong address because the smart word on the street is that Mr Sarwar, too, knew nothing of this new Starmer policy until he read about it in a Sunday newspaper.
And, at the time of writing, he was still trying to find out two things. First, was it true that an incoming Labour government would shut down the North Sea oil field?
Second, was it Sir Keir’s office that fed the story to the press? Or was it some net zero “ultras” in Labour’s Westminster hierarchy?
If it’s either, then Labour really is ratting on previous promises and putting Mr Sarwar and Scottish Labour in a hell of a place with possibly a little over a year before the next general election.
Mr Kerr is right to add embarrassment to outrage in demanding a response from the Scottish Labour leader. The Starmer plan, if implemented, would prove to be a grave danger for the economy of Scotland and the UK.
But in political terms, the Scottish Tories – certainly in the north east of Scotland – might well be laughing all the way to the polling station. It’s been a while since that was the case.
