Meeting of the Parliament 12 November 2025
Okay, Presiding Officer.
We have the former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in favour of a presumption against oil and gas; wannabe First Minister Stephen Flynn, pretending to be a friend of the industry; and John Swinney, with splinters in his backside from trying to sit on the fence, not telling us whether he supports or opposes Rosebank—but we all know that he is no friend of the industry.
Labour’s position is hardly clearer. Its front bench has said that
“our future does not lie in more oil and gas”,—[Official Report, House of Commons, 4 February 2025; Vol 761, c 658.]
while pressing ahead with a headline 78 per cent tax rate and scrapping investment allowances that underpin jobs and investment. That uncertainty drives away capital investment and places Scottish jobs at risk. In 2021, Anas Sarwar tweeted that it was time that Nicola Sturgeon opposed the ecological threat of the proposed Cambo oilfield, and yet, this week, he seems to have had a change of heart and pretends to be a supporter. He is so treacherous that he could be mistaken for Alan Carr, and that all matters because, at the end of the day, we are talking about people and their livelihoods.
Independent analysis warns that ill-judged policies could put up to 100,000 jobs at risk across the UK and strip out tens of billions of pounds of investment. The Scottish Affairs Committee has warned against accelerating decline, while clean energy jobs are not yet coming on stream at the pace that is required. We witnessed that this week at Aberdeen harbour, where redundancies were announced on the back of the oil and gas downturn.
We are going to be using hydrocarbons for years to come, so let us do that in a responsible way that uses home-grown production that supports British jobs and provides revenue for our vital public services. Let us get behind our oil and gas workers.
I move amendment S6M-19637.3, to leave out “opposes” and insert “supports”.
15:14Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.
- S6M-19637.3 Rosebank Motion