The SNP will “fight to protect” oil and gas while also championing continued investment in renewable energy, Economy Secretary Stephen Flynn has said.
He said this “unique” stance would help the party retain the Aberdeen South seat at a by-election later this week, despite the threat of the Conservatives and Reform.
Mr Flynn himself sparked the by-election when he stepped down from the constituency he had represented as an MP after winning a seat at Holyrood in May.
But his message to voters was that backing Nigel Farage’s Reform UK “threatens 50,000 renewables jobs”, while he said the Conservatives had “failed the communities of Aberdeen” as they “messed up the entire environmental analysis” for the Rosebank oil and gas field while in government, resulting in a legal challenge which has delayed the controversial project.
As a result, he said, SNP candidate Richard Thomson was the only person who “can really with any credibility go down to Westminster and deliver for the people of this city”.
Mr Flynn said “decisions that have been taken at Westminster” were responsible for the downturn in the oil and gas industry, with the MSP adding: “Tens of thousands of jobs have been lost. I’ve met with people in that situation and it is dire.”
He said: “What we need to see is Scotland’s energy in Scotland’s hands but, short of that, we need to see an MP who is going to go down to Westminster and fight to protect those jobs, and make sure we have opportunity, not just for the next five, 10 or 15 years, but for the next 50 years by ensuring that while we protect oil and gas, we have the continued investment in offshore renewables as well.
“Only Richard is standing on that platform. That makes him unique in this context and makes him the only person who should be going down to Westminster on behalf of the people of Aberdeen South.”
Mr Flynn continued: “What bugs me in this contest is you have Reform politicians who argue that oil and gas will last forever and we don’t need to have an energy transition at all, who have said they will get rid of all renewables jobs in Scotland, ignore carbon capture and storage opportunities up in the north east.
“And you have got Tory politicians who ignore the fact that they were the ones who introduced the energy profits levy, and that they were the ones who messed up the entire environmental analysis in respect of Rosebank.
“The only reason it has not gone ahead yet is because they ended up in court and lost a court case in respect of Rosebank, so they are the ones that have failed the communities of Aberdeen.”
Mr Flynn insisted voters in Aberdeen South want “local representatives who understand the industry, who understand the impact it has on all aspects of life up here and who are committed not just to protecting it, but to making sure that we have that sustainable managed transition” away from fossil fuels.
This, he said, was important to protect jobs in the long term, adding that only the SNP is “offering that at this election”.
