The Tory leader will use a speech today to call for an end to the windfall tax and to lift the ban on new oil and gas licences
After receiving donations from oil investors and climate sceptics, Kemi Badenoch will use a speech at Scottish Conservative Party conference today to side with oil and gas companies.
Badenoch will call for the end of the windfall tax on profits that gas and oil companies generate and to lift the ban on new gas and oil licences.
The Tory leader is expected to say that “renewing our party and our country means standing up for our oil and gas industry”.
Jackie Baillie, Deputy Leader of Scottish Labour, 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.”
Baillie added: “The Tories are on the side of oil and gas giants rather than working Scots, but Scottish Labour will work with the UK Government and use devolved powers to deliver a just transition for the industry. With Kemi Badenoch desperately attempting to rally the few remaining Scottish Tories, it seems like it won’t be long until they can fit all of their MSPs in a single taxi.”
Badenoch will tell the conference: “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.”
She will also accuse Labour of “killing” the oil and gas industry. This comes as the impacts of climate change intensify. The UK experienced the the driest spring in 132 years, with two regions, the Northwest of England and Yorkshire, now having entered into drought status.
In January, the Tories received a donation of £50,000 from Neil Record, a climate sceptic and chair of Net Zero Watch. Record also gave £10,000 to Badenoch’s leadership campaign last year—and has since donated a further £6,000.
During February half-term Badenoch and her family attended a three-day residential hosted and paid for by Record, which cost approximately £14,350.38.
Net Zero Watch has received over half a million dollars from the climate-sceptic billionaire Koch brothers.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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