Kemi Badenoch has accused Keir Starmer of spending “most of their time being rude about energy companies”, leaving them with “very little capital” as he sits down with energy bosses in Downing Street.On a visit to the Port of Aberdeen, the Leader of the Opposition criticised the Government’s approach as she boarded the Well-Safe Protector rig at Port of Aberdeen South Harbour before being joined by Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay.Together, they set out the Conservative agenda to return to drilling oil and gas in the North Sea, calling on the Labour Government to put the British public first as prices rise amidst escalating tensions in the Middle East.The Conservative energy plan seeks to take VAT off of domestic energy bills for the next three years, resulting in £94 being taken off average household costs.
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In addition to axing the carbon tax on generating electricity, the Conservatives also want to scrap Ed Miliband’s wind subsidies.But the biggest stage in the leader’s four-point plan is to get Britain drilling again in the North Sea, paying particular heed to the 2.9million proven or probable barrels of oil Britain can extract from the seabed.Noting the Prime Minister’s meeting with energy bosses today in Downing Street, Ms Badenoch said: “Keir Starmer and the Labour Government have spent most of their time being rude about energy companies and so they have very little capital with them at all.“Let’s be honest,” she continued, “he doesn’t need another meeting with energy companies, he knows what he needs to do: drill our own oil and gas in the North Sea.”She said that embracing the untapped opportunities off the British coast was “definitely part of the solution to stagnant growth”.“We need oil and gas for so many reasons”, she said, “for security of supply, we need it for jobs, we need it for tax revenue.“We’re importing it from countries that don’t produce it as cleanly as we do here in Aberdeen.”Fourteen years of Conservative Government pushed carbon neutrality further than ever before, and Mrs Badenoch said renewables and oil and gas needn’t be mutually exclusive.LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:Rachel Reeves joins emergency G7 talks as fuel shortage fears surgeCovid-style restrictions must NOT be used to combat energy crisis, pandemic experts warnOPINION – Ed Miliband is misleading the public on North Sea gas – Kwaku Boakye-Adjei“The renewables industry relies on gas and gas is part of the transition,” she said.“We need to tackle climate change but we need money to do that and we cannot bankrupt ourselves or we won’t be able to tackle climate change and we’ll lose our energy security.”Also spending Monday morning in Aberdeenshire, SNP First Minister John Swinney insisted he would draft a Section 30 order to acquire energy responsibilities from Westminster on his first day as a re-elected First Minister.Visiting St Fergus Gas Terminal in Peterhead, he said: “Scotland generates a huge amount of energy, far in excess of the energy requirements.“But our people are not getting the benefit of that and I want to make sure that Scotland’s future is in Scotland’s hands and our energy is in Scotland’s hands, where we have control over energy resources from the early days of the next SNP Government.”He said the key to making sure “Scotland’s energy wealth works for the benefit of the people of Scotland” was driving lower bills and redistributing energy wealth back to the people of Scotland.The First Minister has previously voiced adamant objection to further drilling in the North Sea, instead holding an unwavering determination in Scotland’s wind power potential.Nevertheless, energy remains a largely reserved matter, though the Scottish Government has some powers relating to energy efficiency, onshore planning permission and renewable energy initiatives.
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