More splits over Starmer oil and gas ban plan emerge

Tauqeer Malik, the leader of the group in the city, told The Herald that the future of the offshore industry needed “much more strategic and careful planning” from an incoming Labour government. 

“We have jobs and families to protect. We cannot just throw the baby out with the bath water,” he added.

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Details of the party’s position are due to be set out next week as part of Sir Keir’s “national mission” to cut the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels. 

Last night, Sir Keir insisted oil and gas would "play a crucial part in our energy mix for decades to come."

The plan - which was leaked to press earlier this month - has already been attacked by industry and unions, but welcomed by environmental campaigners. 

There are splits in Scottish Labour too, with some members reportedly being critical of the ban.

Anas Sarwar has even said that there is still an “open discussion to be had” on future licenses. 

Councillor Malik said it would “not make economic sense for Scotland and the rest of the UK to halt development in the North Sea.”

He added: “Labour must commit towards more renewable sources of energy with substantial investment in the green jobs of the future, however in the short to medium term Labour must invest further in oil and gas.

“If we were to stop development in the North Sea we would inevitably have to rely more heavily on imports from countries where the stringent measures we have in place to reduce the impact to the environment are, frankly, non-existent.

“Such short-term thinking makes no sense and would actually have a seriously negative impact on the environment, as it would mean surrendering current, hard-won safeguards and defeating the overall objective, of which we are all agreed.”

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The councillor said it was vital Labour work with the oil and gas industry “to ensure that the priority of the UK matches the meaningful changes required to protect our planet while moving towards transition.” 

“We have jobs and families to protect. We cannot just throw the baby out with the bath water."

The Aberdeen Labour motion - which is backed by the Unite union - says an incoming Labour government “cannot turn our back on a sector which has supported UK PLC through the difficult times.”

It goes on to say that, “it would be economically illiterate to import oil and gas from overseas when we have oil and gas on our doorstep.

“There is no rational case for increasing import dependency in terms of security, energy environmental or economic policy therefore it is vital that the oil and gas industry works with Labour to ensure that the priority of the UK matches the serious change needed to protect our environment whilst we move towards just transition.”

Councillor Malik added: “The hard fact is that the UK will need oil and gas for decades, even if renewables generating capacity increases at the kind of rate seen in recent years. 

“It will take a long time before this country develops the capacity and grid connections required to ensure the power generated by wind farms and the like is available everywhere.”

John Borland from Unite: “Although there will be a transition from oil and gas in future years, we need to ensure that  existing offshore jobs are protected, and that will require continued government support, after the next election.”

He said the party needed to “fully engage with Unite, the main trade union that represent this workforce, so that any transition puts workers at the centre of it, and ensures that these workers and their communities are not left behind, as we saw happen with the miners."

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A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: “The skills and expertise of Aberdeen’s energy workforce will be key to a successful energy transition.

“We are clear that meeting our climate targets will go hand in hand with protecting and creating jobs in our energy sector.

“Labour will not impose a cliff-edge end to oil and gas production while we transform the U.K. into a clean energy superpower - existing licences will continue and using existing wells sensibly is baked into Labour’s plans.  

“Labour is committed to a just transition that works for all of our communities – lowering bills for good and creating tens of thousands of skilled, long-term jobs in Scotland and across the UK."

Last night, Sir Keir penned a column for the Times defending the plan. 

He said there were "two, clear visions of Britain’s energy future – a forward-thinking Labour one, which seizes the opportunities before us, creating hundreds of thousands of good new jobs, or the SNP and Conservative ones that will see us fall behind and leave us hooked to the weapons belt of oil-rich dictators like Vladimir Putin."

He added: “Let me be clear: those who think we should somehow simply end domestic oil and gas production in Britain are wrong.

“Under Labour’s plans, they will play a crucial part in our energy mix for decades to come. We will not be revoking any licences. But simply carrying on as we are is not a plan: it is a recipe for failure.”

Sir Keir is due to launch the party’s election policy in Scotland next week.

He insisted the party would “never leave oil and gas workers clinging on in the storm of a declining global market”.

Last week, Labour scaled back plans to borrow £28bn a year to invest in green jobs and industry. 

Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the delay to the green prosperity fund was down to the poor economic backdrop.