“Labour’s crazy ban on new drilling licences, which the SNP support, must end now,” Kemi Badenoch told reporters in Aberdeen South, days before voters there went to the polls in a by-election.
The Conservative leader came to the constituency to back her candidate, Douglas Lumsden, in a race reportedly neck and neck between the Conservatives and the SNP. She called the Labour government’s decision to forbid further oil and gas drilling in the North Sea “crazy” and said a Conservative win would give the sector the “kiss of life”.
She described the industry as the “economic lifeblood” of the area. People had told her, she said, that “the city is on its knees because Labour and the SNP are killing the oil and gas industry”. Her party, she told attendees, was “proudly pro-drilling because it’s crucial to the North-east economy and essential for the nation’s energy security.”
Lumsden worked in the sector for two decades. “If voters in Aberdeen South choose Douglas Lumsden as their MP on Thursday, it will send a deafening message that the SNP and Labour would ignore at their peril,” Badenoch said.
The SNP answers
Richard Thomson, the SNP candidate, rejected the pitch and turned the same phrase around. The Tories, he said, had delivered the “kiss of death” to thousands of jobs in Aberdeen.
“The Tories destroyed 70,000 oil and gas jobs and introduced the hated windfall tax,” Thomson said. “They have zero credibility on our energy sector.” He also took a swipe at Lumsden, accusing him of asking tens of thousands of AI-generated questions on tomato sauce sachets while those jobs disappeared.
Thomson said only the SNP would stand up for Aberdeen and its energy sector. His party’s plan, he said, was to put Scotland’s energy in Scotland’s hands, end the windfall tax, take sensible licensing decisions and protect oil and gas jobs.
