Tory leader Kemi Badenoch claims Labour 'killing industry' in north-east focused speech
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch will put the future of oil and gas at the heart of her speech to party conference on Friday, accusing Labour of 'killing' the industry.
The clear north-east pitch will be made one day after Labour Energy Secretary Ed Miliband visited an major energy scheme at St Fergus in Aberdeenshire.
He said the Labour government is 'putting its money where its mouth is' with £200 million for the Acorn carbon-capture project which the sector says will support 15,000 jobs at its peak.
But on Friday, Ms Badenoch – the opposition leader – will demand the Labour government drop a energy windfall tax, and scrap a ban on new oil and gas licences.
Her own Tory party introduced the Energy Profits Levy in May 2022 in response to soaring profits and chose to extend it in March 2024.
The UK Labour government has since raised and extended it again until 2030.
In Edinburgh, she will tell Scottish Conservatives Labour is killing industry.
She will add: 'Today, I say enough. Labour must remove the energy profits levy. Labour must speed up the process of replacing it with a system that rewards success and incentivises investment because we shouldn't have this energy profits levy at all.
'We must scrap the ban on new licences.
'We must overturn the ban on supporting oil and gas technology exports.
'And we must champion our own industry.'
The Conservative Party leader told the P&J last year it had been a 'mistake' for her party to extend the tax while in government.
Robert Palmer, deputy director of Uplift, who want to urgently phase out oil and gas, claimed the former Tory government 'sat on their hands and did nothing to ensure the shift to renewables benefited Scotland's energy workers'.
He added: 'New licensing has done nothing to boost our energy supply and nothing to sustain the workforce.'
The clear north-east focus comes at a tough time for the party, which is losing multiple local councillors across Aberdeenshire to Nigel Farage's Reform party.
On Thursday morning, the P&J reported that a sixth councillor had defected.
Scottish Labour Deputy Leader Jackie Baillie said: 'The Tories are on the side of oil and gas giants rather than working Scots, but Scottish Labour will work with the UK Government and use devolved powers to deliver a just transition for the industry.'
The UK Government was approached for comment.
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