Labour vows energy plan will deliver ‘massive prize’ for Scotland

Labour has pledged to bring a huge number of jobs and billions of pounds worth of investment to Scotland through its plans for a state-owned energy-generation company.

Speaking in the former industrial heartland of Greenock, the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer laid out a pitch for Scottish voters he hopes to lure away from the Scottish National party and secure dozens of seats that could form the bedrock of his government in Westminster. 

He said on Friday that GB Energy, a clean power company headquartered in Scotland, would help deliver the “massive prize” of lower bills, “maximising Scotland’s influence on the world stage” from the first days of any Labour administration.

Starmer also accused the Conservatives of complacency in the global race to develop clean power. “Rishi Sunak is in the changing room — I want to be in the race and I want to win the race,” he said. “Why not Scotland?”

The Labour leader described renewable energy as the “best opportunity we’ve had in a generation” for job creation and energy security, but he warned of competition from other countries in Europe and the US.

As he outlined plans to accelerate the energy transition, Starmer admitted that he had travelled to Scotland on a private jet, saying he needed to use the most efficient form of transport to speak to “as many people as possible”. The carbon emissions generated by his air travel had been offset, he added. 

Ed Miliband, shadow energy secretary, said an endorsement from Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s former chief scientific adviser, showed Labour’s plan to decarbonise the energy grid by 2030 was “bold and credible”.

Labour has said GB Energy will produce clean energy and invest in the supply chain around the renewable-energy industry, securing domestic jobs in a sector where much of the manufacturing takes place overseas. The £8.3bn company would be funded by a higher windfall tax on oil and gas companies.

GB Energy will co-invest with the private sector in industries such as offshore and onshore wind, solar and nuclear technologies, and develop 8-gigawatt small- and medium-scale renewable projects with local communities. 

The SNP has previously criticised Labour’s plans to raise taxes further on oil and gas companies, saying they would undermine employment in the north-east of Scotland where the oil and gas industry is key. SNP leader John Swinney on Friday said Labour’s plans for GB energy would be a “body blow for the Scottish economy”. 

The energy industry had warned that Labour’s strategy could destroy 100,000 jobs and deter billions of pounds of investment, added SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn.

The Scottish Conservatives also attacked the plans on economic grounds, claiming they would devastate communities across the north-east of the country.

“It’s economically and environmentally illiterate of Labour and the SNP to turn their back on oil and gas because it would leave us reliant on importing more expensive fossil fuels with a bigger carbon footprint,” said Andrew Bowie, Scottish Conservative candidate for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who has said GB Energy will deliver more than 50,000 jobs in clean energy, rejected such claims, saying oil and gas would play a “significant role for decades to come”.

Starmer said pipelines from the energy industry could be repurposed for carbon capture technologies and the skills of workers in the region would be needed to help the transition that would provide decades’ worth of jobs.

He added that no decision had been taken on where in Scotland to locate GB Energy, but noted that Aberdeen, an oil and gas industry centre, had “a powerful case”.

Letter in response to this article:

An unflattering critique of Labour’s GB Energy plan / From Lucy Shaw, Former Infrastructure Investor, Blackstone, London SW1, UK