Chamber and committees

I am all for the jobs of tomorrow, but we need to protect the jobs of today. We have seen 2,500 jobs being lost in the past year—that is down to policies from both the Scottish and UK Governments. Labour’s windfall tax will cost the north-east 10,000 jobs, as the front page of The Press and Journal last week made clear.

That is an emergency for the north-east. I ask members to imagine, for a minute, a Grangemouth closing every week from now until 2030. Can anyone in the chamber truly appreciate what impact that will have? That is not happening just in one town in Aberdeenshire, like Grangemouth—it will be happening to every town and village in Aberdeenshire. Entire livelihoods will be destroyed by the eco-zealotry of Gillian Martin, John Swinney and Keir Starmer.

They are taking oil and gas workers for fools. What a disgusting organisation the SNP is.

To say to my constituents—[Interruption.]

In June last year, we had a debate in the chamber on oil and gas. Almost a year later, the sector is in a worse state, thanks to the policies of this devolved Scottish National Party Government and an inept Labour Government in Westminster. Both have abandoned the north-east, both have betrayed the oil and gas sector and both are accountable for the loss of jobs, livelihoods and industry in our once-thriving north-east.

It is a disgrace to see how the sector has been sold out, and the Scottish Conservatives remain the only party that is standing up for the industry and those who work in it. The oil and gas sector currently supports more than 83,000 jobs in Scotland, and supports the Scottish economy to the tune of £14 billion—we should be doing everything that we can to protect it. In 2022, 78 per cent of Scotland’s energy needs were met from oil and gas. We need a balanced energy provision. We cannot rely only on oil and gas, renewables or nuclear—we need a proper energy mix.

The Scottish Conservatives want to protect the oil and gas sector, and the vast majority of Scots agree with us. In a recent poll, 84 per cent of people supported the continuation of oil and gas exploration and drilling. The public understand that in order to continue to provide the energy that we need while increasing our renewables sector, there is a process that we have to go through in a reasonable, timely and well-thought-out way. We need to work with the industry and not against it, ensuring that the oil and gas sector is at the centre of our discussions on how we meet our energy needs, move to net zero and ensure that jobs are retained in the north-east.

Last week, we heard the devastating news that Harbour Energy is shedding another 250 jobs. Two and a half thousand jobs have now been lost—2,500 livelihoods lost—in the North Sea in the past year, and the SNP Government’s reaction has been pitiful. When it looked like 200 jobs would go at Ferguson Marine, it nationalised the yard. When Grangemouth refinery announced closure, it set up project willow to look at how jobs could be saved, but in Aberdeen, it did nothing.

We need action to save North Sea jobs as a matter of urgency, so I call on the Scottish Government to grab the bull by the horns and convene an emergency summit with United Kingdom and Scottish Governments, local MPs and MSPs, local authorities, trade organisations, trade unions, third sector organisations, chambers of commerce, development boards and even Great British Energy. This is an emergency for the north-east. There can be no further dither and delay—something needs to be done.

Confidence among people who work in the sector is being lost, and businesses are failing as a result. The situation is not getting better. Even the Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy said this week that more businesses might follow. I agree with her, unless the policies of the Labour and SNP Governments change and they both end their thoughtless, baseless and evidence-lacking approach to energy production in Scotland, now and in future.

The SNP has a presumption against new oil and gas. It is against the UK Government issuing new licences. It is against Rosebank and Cambo, and it has refused to consider nuclear energy. That is left-wing nonsense. Where are all the jobs that have been promised? Where are all the renewables and green-energy jobs? Perhaps the cabinet secretary would like to tell us now how many new jobs have been brought to the north-east in the past year, because we know how many have been lost.

We still have no energy strategy, and we have no direction from this Government—it is net zero on ideas. Will the energy strategy be published in this parliamentary session?

I ask the cabinet secretary: where is the plan? Has it been kicked into the long grass, delayed until after next year’s election? Why does the Government not start being straight with the people of the north-east and tell them when it will be delivered?

I will move on, Deputy Presiding Officer.

What is the Government doing for oil and gas workers in the north-east? The answer is nothing. What a tragic stage this tired Government is in. It claims to want to protect jobs in the north-east, but it opposes Rosebank and Cambo. Do its hypocrisy and hubris know no bounds?

Enough is enough. Only the Scottish Conservatives are standing up for our oil and gas sector and our residents in the north-east: the jobs that the sector maintains, the families whom they support and the communities in which they live. Only the Scottish Conservatives are offering commonsense proposals for an affordable transition with oil and gas playing a pivotal role in it.

I move,

That the Parliament recognises the importance of reducing emissions in a way that is credible, costed and publicly supported; regrets the absence of a clear, deliverable plan for achieving net zero, particularly in relation to the future of Scotland’s energy sector and industrial base; condemns the Scottish and UK governments’ ideological opposition to oil and gas, nuclear power and a balanced energy policy; calls on the UK Government to end its policy of issuing no new oil and gas licences; notes with deep concern the economic and employment impacts of the closure of the Grangemouth refinery and recent job losses at Harbour Energy in Aberdeen; further notes that the increase and extension of the UK Government’s Energy Profits Levy has had a damaging effect on investment in the North Sea; argues that current Scottish Government policy on nuclear, oil and gas is having a detrimental effect on energy prices and energy security; points out that Great British Energy is a gimmick that will do nothing to bring down bills, and condemns the explosion of electricity infrastructure across the Scottish countryside, and calls on the Scottish Government to adopt a pragmatic, pro-growth energy strategy that supports the workforce, secures investment, delivers affordability and ensures energy reliability and national competitiveness for the future.

Do you think that the energy strategy would help to clarify where we are going as a country?

Will the member take an intervention?

—and even more disgustingly, in the case of the cabinet secretary—[Interruption.]

Last week, the Presiding Officer did nothing about it—[Interruption.]

On a point of order, Deputy Presiding Officer. On 8 May 2025, the First Minister used the words

“It is a disgusting organisation”—[Official Report, 8 May 2025; c 20.]

in reference to ourselves. I seek your guidance. Nothing was raised by the chair then, so have the rules changed since that day, or has a different standard been applied?

To take the politics out of it, does the member support my call for an emergency summit at which Governments and trade unions could get together to look at what is happening in the oil and gas industry and try to do something about it?

Will the member take an intervention?