Kemi Badenoch: Labour is killing North Sea oil and gas

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch will today call for new oil and gas licences to be granted in the North Sea as she accuses the UK Government of “killing” the industry.

Badenoch, who will give the keynote speech at the Scottish Conservatives conference in Edinburgh, will also call on the government to scrap the Energy Profits Levy (EPL), a windfall tax on oil on energy firms.

Scottish Conservatives leader Russell Findlay will address the conference on Sunday.

Badenoch is expected to say: “Renewing our party and our country means standing up for our oil and gas industry.

“When the oil and gas windfall tax, the Energy Profits Levy, was brought in, the oil price was near a historic high, at the exact time as energy bills for the British people were sky rocketing.

“But there is no longer a windfall to tax. It has long gone. And the longer this regressive tax on one of our most successful industries remains, the more damaging it becomes.

“Labour have extended and increased this tax. They are killing this industry.

 “And frankly if it is allowed to remain in place until 2030, as is Labour’s current plan, there will be no industry left to tax.”

Earlier this week, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in the Spending Review that funding will be provided to develop the Acorn carbon capture and storage project in Aberdeenshire alongside £8.3bn for Great British Energy to develop “homegrown clean power”.

Introduced by the Conservative government in 2022, the EPL is due to expire in 2029  but will end sooner if oil and gas prices fall below a certain level.

“Today I say enough,” Badenoch will say. “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.”

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “While the Tories and SNP let energy workers down by failing to plan for the future, Scottish Labour is committed to taking action towards reaching net zero, creating jobs and cutting energy bills.

“Kemi Badenoch is pretending she has the interests of workers at heart, but it was her Tory government that wreaked economic havoc across our country – hitting workers in the pocket.

“Labour is clearing up the mess left by Tory chaos and incompetence, and next year only Scottish Labour can beat the SNP and deliver the new direction that Scotland needs.”