With the Scottish Parliamentary elections in May, The Business sought the views of each of the main parties on the energy transition. At our Dealmakers’ breakfast event in Aberdeen, lots were drawn for each to make an opening statement. The speakers were in the following order:
- Stephen Flynn, SNP leader in the House of Commons. MP for Aberdeen South.
- Alex Cole-Hamilton, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, and MSP.
- Douglas Lumsden, Scottish Conservative, MSP.
- Kirsty McNeill, Labour MP for Midlothian, and Under Secretary of State for Scotland.
- Malcolm Offord, Scottish leader of Reform UK.
- The Green Party was invited but did not take part.
THE SNP VIEW
Stephen Flynn opened his spot by asking if there were any welders in the audience. He explained that his oldest friend is a welding inspector, who lives in Brechin. The inspector has young daughters and was upset.
“He had been offered a package to go and work full-time in the North of England, leaving his daughters behind, and coming back at the weekend, or going down to a two-and-a-half day week. The reason why this was happening was because there is no work.”
He said there was no activity for welders in the Scottish-based company.
“There was nothing for him to inspect. I don’t know about you, but I’m fed up having these conversations. I’m fed-up speaking to my mates, people who stop me in the pubs and say to me that they don’t have opportunity right now. What they have is worry.”
He said the reason they are worried is because they see an energy industry which is a global leader. People who have skills which are sought after right across this planet, not having certainty that they are going to have opportunity in their lives.
“And, at same time that they have this worry, the opportunity of renewables is not being realised in the way that they were promised. They feel the worst of all worlds.”
Flynn said that what these people want politicians who stand up and speak up for them.
“We do have a world-class industry that we can be proud of, something that we should shout about, and alongside that industry, you should seek to build another industry that also becomes global leading.”
He said the days of talk are over because we need to get it right for the welder and his family.
THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS VIEW
Alex Cole-Hamilton spoke about Aberdeen University being his alma mater, where he was president of the students’ association.
“We meet at probably one of the most disruptive moments in human history, where the world as we thought we knew it, is being torn up in real time. That has tremendous implications for our economy, energy security and, indeed, the future of the Western world.”
He said we are having to adapt our way of thinking and policy generation to match this.
“I recognise that we are facing the final boss of the 21st century will always be climate change. So we do have an obligation to move away from oil and gas, but we don’t need to do that at the expense of the industry that has made this city great. And we don’t need to turn off the taps right now.”
He said the problem is that successful governments have failed to drive down demand for oil and gas. Yet we still have a situation where one million homes in Scotland are inadequately insulated, where 800,000 Scots are living in fuel poverty.
“If you ask any Scot on any given day, what are the drivers for making you vote in this election, cost of living is top of the polls. And of all the bills they face, fuel bills are still exorbitant.”
He said the arcane energy market where there is an auction every half hour for the provision of electricity.
“Money is then wasted because we can’t deliver the preferred bidders into the grid because of transmission issues and there’s huge lot of waste in that.”
“I would like to see a situation, and the Liberal Democrats would like to see this, where we no longer make the North-east in particular, but Britain more generally, an unsafe place to do business for investment and confidence.”
He says the Liberal Democrats want to see an end to the EPL [Energy Profits Levy] because this was brought when energy profits were four times higher than today.
“We can’t have the Exchequer leaning on the oil and gas industry as an easy win for filling the gaps in our nation’s coffers. We need to inspire confidence and investment in this sector, and we do that by agreeing a tax ecosystem that works for the long term which inspired confidence and investment.”
He said the National Grid needs urgent upgrading.
“I can’t understand when we did this last in the 1950s and 1960s, we had a massive programme of information campaign as to why it is necessary. We don’t have that at the moment and as a result we are constantly fighting battles because communities are not being consulted in terms of the transmission requirements for the new grid infrastructure.”
He also said Scotland needs to get its offshore strategy for renewable technology right because the first ScotWind leasing round saw the “lion’s share of our seabed sold off at a pittance”.
THE CONSERVATIVES VIEW
Douglas Lumsden reflected on comments by Maggie McGinlay, CEO of ETZ, that the North-east of Scotland is lucky to have both hydro carbons and the potential for offshore wind technologies.
“But just now, it feels like we are shooting ourselves in the foot in the way that we are demonising oil and gas at every turn.”
He said there is a UK policy of no new oil and gas licences in UK waters at the moment, which only means we are going to import more oil and gas. This will only support jobs in other areas of the world.
“There is also a Scottish Government where there is a presumption against new oil and gas. That doesn’t do anything to encourage investment into Scotland.”
He said it seems like a question of survival at the moment, with 1,000 jobs lost every month from the oil and gas industry.
“These jobs are not being replaced at the same rate by renewables. Sometimes we hear about a transition, but it doesn’t seem like a transition for those people who are transitioning onto the dole. Or transitioning to working abroad, or to early retirement.”
Lumsden said the country need a proper managed transition which means supporting oil and gas jobs while we build up the renewables sector. He added that the cost must be factored into this transition. In terms of the investment from GB Energy that this goes towards driving down the cost of floating office shore wind for example.”
He said, according to the AR7 pricing, floating offshore wind was around £220 MWH (megawatt hour), which is three times the cost of wholesale energy.
“We’ve got to wean ourselves away from these huge subsidies for wind. We need to do it in a way that is affordable for everyone and that way we will reduce our energy bills.”
He concluded his opening remarks by saying the UK needs a ‘proper energy strategy’ involving oil and gas, renewables and nuclear.
THE REFORM UK VIEW
Malcom Offord stated that a complete and ‘utter’ revaluation of energy policy is needed.
“What we are doing is an act of utter self-harm.”
He said energy prices in the UK are seven times higher than they are in China, four times higher than the United States of America.
“We are meant to be an advanced economy: how on earth can we make anything with energy prices like that? Never mind heat our own homes. It is utterly ridiculous.”
He said the pie chart showed that the UK is still 75 per cent hydrocarbon, and 25 per cent renewable. But the net zero target which was signed up in the House of Commons in 70 minutes without a vote is to flip that on its head to 75 per cent renewables, and 25 per cent hydro carbons.
“We are miles away from that. We have a situation where we have to get real and honest with people. If you look at the average household bill for a three-bedroom house, it is £1,000, of which one third is the cost of the energy, two-thirds is all the add-ons, the environmental levies, the wind subsidies, etc.”
“We are told this is a just transition; try going to Grangemouth and taking about that. Or the North-east and talk about just transition. What we need is an affordable transition.”
He cited OEUK’s recent survey which showed a transition of jobs from oil and gas to renewables was only running at 50 per cent. Furthermore, the salaries of what they were getting are 50 per cent lower. Meanwhile, everyone with oil and gas skills is heading abroad.
70 per cent of UK gas is coming in from Norway, which is in the North Sea “over the fence from the ones we are shutting down”. He said even the Norwegian energy minister thinks this is ‘nuts’.
“We are bringing 25 per cent in from America through shale gas coming in on a dirty big container ship, which is four times the emissions and double the costs. So we’ve just got to get real. We’ve gas on our doorstep and we need to rehabilitate gas. It’s a simple as that.”
“We need an energy policy that is SANE, with S for secure, A for affordable, NE is ‘negligible emissions’, which means as low as we can, but on a journey not set by politicians, but by the market that allows us to get there.”
On emissions, he pointed out that China accounts for 30 per cent, the US is 13 per cent, while the UK is less than one per cent. China is 30 per cent renewables but it is using coal as its transition fuel. “We stopped burning coal in 1997 when the world was burning 4 billion tonnes of coal, today the world is burning eight billion tonnes of coal.”
America is using shale gas as its transition fuel.
“Our transition fuel is North Sea gas, let’s use it, let’s get our bills down. Let’s keep our industries going and we’ll get to a clean energy system at the right moment.”
THE SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY VIEW
Kirsty McNeill started with the challenge that Maggie McGinlay laid out earlier at The Business breakfast panel.
“I’d like to underscore very clearly and explicitly in this room, Scottish Labour absolutely recognised the expertise of the workers in the North-east and indeed everyone in this room.”
She explained that the UK is dealing with an international situation that is “unbelievably volatile”.
“Given that volatility the challenge from the Prime Minister to every Labour UK government department is to be an industrial department and to think about how we make this transition, and how we secure jobs and prosperity.”
She cited the creation of GB Energy, the decision over Berwick Bank offshore windfarm, and the £86bn in the Spending Review for research and development. This coupled with ‘record’ £120bn of private investment ‘crowded in’ during 2025, plus a ‘record’ 120 major infrastructure project signed off.
“As a Labour government, we are thinking long-term, as we were challenged to by the expert panel.”
Scottish Labour’s election manifesto will be release in due course.
“But to give you three contours of what is shaping the thinking of that manifesto process, and Anas Sarwar has been unbelievably clear that the Scottish Parliament, for all of its promise, has been essentially for the first 25 years has been a ‘social policy’ parliament, and it needs to be moved to and ‘economics’ parliament. We need to do that mindful of the fact that Scotland has very distinct economic geographies.”
She said the Scottish Parliament needs to think about the “very difference needs of very difference regions”. She said a plan beats no plan. Labour’s plan will be pragmatic and evidence-led.
“And we have to plan for the world that we are in. So yes, we are losing jobs in oil and gas but that has been true with 70,000 jobs lost in the last decade.”
She said that the transition will not be set by the rules of politicians but the rules of science. McNeill said that cooperation always beats conflict, and this will be a strong element of the Scottish Labour manifesto. She pointed out that having a Scottish Labour government in Holyrood working with the national UK Labour government in Westminster, is more likely to achieve more than a divisive relationship across the borders.
“I represent Midlothian and a number of my colleagues represent former coalfield seats, we know in our bones what it is to have communities subject to an un-justice transition. We are simply not going to let that happen. The watchword from us will be pragmatism, doing this in a balanced way that delivers prosperity and jobs.”