Tories to force Holyrood vote on Rosebank and Jackdaw
The party called on Labour and the SNP to ‘get off the fence’
A vote on whether consent should be given to new oil and gas projects will take place in Holyrood today after being tabled by the Scottish Conservatives.
The party said the move would force Labour and the SNP to “get off the fence”.
It will ask MSPs to agree that the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil and gas fields should be given the green light by Prime Minister Andy Burnham as soon as possible.
Tory energy spokesman Liam Kerr said the “ongoing dithering” from the Prime Minister was “hugely damaging” for the sector.
He said: “Giving the green light to Jackdaw and Rosebank is just common sense, but Andy Burnham is continuing to dither.
“While he does so, more and more jobs are being lost in the industry and the UK’s energy security becomes increasingly reliant on imports.
“This makes absolutely no economic , environmental or security sense, when we could be undertaking new drilling in the North Sea right now.
“Our debate will finally force SNP and Labour MSPs to get off the fence.”
Earlier this year, Mr Swinney signalled a shift in the SNP's position on new oil and gas developments due to the "huge volatility" caused by the war in Iran.
He said the disruption in the Middle East had changed the "dynamics" of the debate around developments such as Rosebank and Jackdaw.
The comments marked a clear departure from the position taken by his predecessors, Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf.
The former recently argued it is not right "to just drill for more and more fossil fuels".
"Instead of spending money on diminishing supplies of oil and gas, let's invest more and more on the renewable technologies of the future,” she said in August.
Decisions over North Sea licensing are reserved to the UK government, but Mr Swinney has called for power over energy to be transferred to Holyrood.
In June, Douglas Lumsden won the Aberdeen South by-election for the Tories with a majority of 6,050 after putting the oil and gas industry at the centre of his campaign.
Mr Kerr said: “I’m giving [First Minister] John Swinney and the SNP the chance to show they’ve ditched the SNP’s ideological, unevidenced and hugely damaging presumption against new oil and gas projects.
“It is also [new Scottish Labour leader] Michael Marra’s opportunity to show that Scottish Labour has finally stopped dancing to [Ed] Miliband’s tune and back oil and gas jobs. People will be keen to see if he has authority over his MSPs or not.
“We saw in the Aberdeen South by-election that voters are furious [with] the SNP and Labour’s hostility to the oil and gas industry and my north east constituents know they want to turn the taps off in the North Sea.
“A failure to back our motion today would confirm people’s suspicions. Only the Scottish Conservatives can be trusted to always stand up for oil and gas workers and back one of Scotland’s most crucial industries.”
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