Budget move on oil and gas destroys Tory credibility in North East, says SNP candidate
06/03/24
Today’s UK government budget, Wednesday 6 March, was the final death knell in the Conservative Party’s credibility in North East Scotland, according to Glen Reynolds.
Mr Reynolds, SNP candidate for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, said that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt only stole the UK Labour Party’s thunder by extending a windfall tax on oil and gas companies by a year, to March 2029.
It has been subsequently reported that the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce said this would deepen job losses in the oil and gas sector. The SNP said it would not only destroy up to 100,000 jobs but would also eradicate any hope of reaching Net Zero targets.
The SNP is on record as being opposed to the windfall tax extension.
Mr Reynolds said, “When push comes to shove in Westminster, Conservatives or Labour in charge, Scotland is expendable and we have known that for a very long time, despite what their spin doctors say.
“The crocodile tears today over this move – from the Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross who said it was ‘a step in the wrong direction’, and from the MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Andrew Bowie who said it was ‘deeply disappointing’ – fool no one. They would have known this was coming and stage management is no substitute for sincerity.
“Indeed, if you cast your eyes south to the London radio station LBC with its well-kent broadcaster Andrew Marr, he said earlier this evening, ‘There is such a thing as a collective responsibility; I can’t remember ministers attacking a budget on budget day and not being asked to resign.’
“There has been no indication that Mr Ross nor Mr Bowie has been asked to resign by the prime minister. It’s all flimflam. Either that or the Scottish Conservatives are catching up rather late with the idea that Scotland comes way down the list in terms of UK priorities.”
Mr Reynolds added, “The SNP position on oil and gas is crystal clear. We are on a journey to Net Zero, oil and gas form part of the mix, oil and gas jobs will be around for some time to come; a managed and Just Transition to renewables is the best way forward.
“Taxing jobs in the North East of Scotland out of existence is unconscionable.
“The Conservative budget is simply wrong on various levels. For one thing, the UK Office for Budget Responsibility says the overall tax burden in the UK is still going up, mainly because of freezes in tax thresholds in a period of high inflation.
“Meanwhile, under the Conservatives, economic growth in the coming years is predicted to be low while GDP per capita will only struggle back to its pre-COVID levels by 2025, according to the Financial Times today.
“In the final analysis, Conservatives MPs are in thrall to Westminster, not their own constituencies, and this has never been thrown into sharper relief – especially in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine.”