– in the Scottish Parliament at on 22 June 2023.
Anas Sarwar
Labour
2. On Monday, Labour launched our mission to make Scotland and the United Kingdom a clean energy superpower. It is an ambitious and far-reaching plan with four objectives. It will deliver lower Bills—[
Interruption.
] Your constituents will get lower bills. It will deliver more jobs and greater energy security, and it will make the UK and Scotland a global climate leader. It is backed up by Great British Energy, a new publicly owned energy company that will be headquartered here in Scotland. Does the First Minister welcome this significant and transformative investment?
Humza Yousaf
Scottish National Party
I am delighted that Anas Sarwar has been able to clarify Scottish Labour’s position, because Labour has had about five different positions on this in about five different weeks.
I often say to Anas Sarwar that he is far more style than substance, so it was good to hear a little bit of substance from Scottish Labour today. The problem is, of course, that the substance was panned by those in the industry, panned by climate change activists, panned by the trade unions and, of course, panned by members of his own party. [
Interruption
.]
The First Minister:
When we finally get Anas Sarwar talking about some substance, he manages to fluff it.
I say to Anas Sarwar very clearly that, when it comes to Scotland’s renewable energy, why on earth should the people of Scotland trust a Labour Party that, just a couple of weeks ago, scrapped its £28 billion green prosperity fund? Why on earth should they trust a Labour Party that has been part of successive UK Governments that have taken £350 billion from the north-east?
Anas Sarwar thinks that we should be thankful for the fact that Labour is going to base a little bit of a Government department here in Scotland. I will tell him what the people of Scotland want: they want full powers—[
Interruption
.]
Anas Sarwar
Labour
Dearie, dearie me—that was a terrible answer from the First Minister. I am not sure whether this is the week that the First Minister should be talking about divisions in a political party.
This is a serious plan and a serious issue but, sadly, we do not have a serious First Minister, because Humza Yousaf cannot even bring himself to welcome these plans. This is billions of investment for Scotland, more jobs for Scotland, lower Bills for Scotland and greater energy security for Scotland, but he would rather side with the Tories and—in his own words—“make life ... difficult for” Labour—[
Interruption
.]
Anas Sarwar
Labour
Let us look at what Humza Yousaf is opposing. He talks about substance, so let us look at the substance of what he is opposing: investment to make Scotland a leader in carbon capture and storage, onshore wind, offshore wind and hydrogen; 50,000 clean power jobs in Scotland; 17,000 jobs upgrading homes to make them energy efficient; 1.4 million homes upgraded; 1,000 local power projects, and GBE, a publicly owned energy company for the UK, headquartered here in Scotland. But no—Mr no style, no substance cannot support any of them.
Is the First Minister so blinded by his Opposition to a Labour Government that he cannot accept what is good for Scotland?
The First Minister:
Of course a GB energy company would be based in Scotland, because we have the Majority of the renewables and natural resources here.
Anas Sarwar says that we should be thanking our London masters for the crumbs off the table—well, forgive me if I have far more ambition for our country than this leader of the Scottish Labour Party.
Anas Sarwar—[
Interruption
.]
The First Minister:
Anas Sarwar says that he does not want to hear from me. I will tell him my thoughts clearly, but let us listen to what Barney Crockett, the former Labour leader of Aberdeen City Council, who quit following Labour’s green energy plan, said. He stated that Anas Sarwar should listen—[
Interruption
.]
Anas Sarwar asks whether we are siding with him. I am quoting a Labour councillor, for goodness’ sake, so why does Anas Sarwar not listen to what Barney Crockett had to say?
He said:
“Margaret Thatcher never delivered a more brutal put down of an industry than that delivered by Keir Starmer in Edinburgh”—
The First Minister:
Oh, there is more to come.
Barney Crockett went on to say:
“Moreover, he avoided answering any direct question about Aberdeen. Rather, he deflected to Anas Sarwar who made no specific response about the city”,
because, not for the first time, Anas Sarwar and the Scottish Labour Party are prepared to completely abandon every single worker in the north-east.
We simply will not do that. When it comes to a just transition, we have put our money where our mouth is: a £500 million just transition fund. Scottish Labour will put the workers of the north-east on the scrap heap, and we will not be prepared to do that.
The Presiding Officer:
I call Anas Sarwar. Mr Sarwar, I would be grateful if you could avoid the use of nicknames in future questions.
Anas Sarwar
Labour
Presiding Officer,
I was responding to a criticism that the First Minister made of me—I was not using any nicknames to the First Minister—[
Interruption.
] I was clarifying that I was not using any nicknames.
It is really important to say that these plans will ensure that we do not make the same mistakes that Margaret Thatcher made, and the sleepwalking by this Government is what would repeat those mistakes.
This Scottish National Party Government has had 16 years to deliver for Scotland, and it has failed. In 2017, the SNP promised a public energy company—and then scrapped it. Alex Salmond told us that Scotland would be the “Saudi Arabia of renewables”. The SNP promised 130,000 green jobs, and failed to deliver. Nicola Sturgeon could have taken a public stake in ScotWind, but she chose to sell it off on the cheap.
After 16 years of the SNP in government, people across our country are looking for action, and Labour has a plan for more jobs, lower Bills, greater energy security and climate leadership.
There is going to be a global leader in the clean energy revolution. The difference is that Keir Starmer and I believe that that global leader will be Scotland and the UK. Why do Humza Yousaf and the Tories not believe that?
The First Minister:
I remind Labour—because it seems that Anas Sarwar does not know—what its policy is. Time and again, UK Labour politicians have said that they want to use Scotland’s natural resources to give a council tax freeze to people in England. Once again, Anas Sarwar and the UK Labour Party view our north-east as a cash cow; they want to take money from the north-east in order to be able to fund a council tax freeze for the rest of the UK.
The difference between Anas Sarwar and me is that I want to keep the profit that is made and invest it in communities here in Scotland while he wants to squander it, as successive UK Governments have continued to do. When it comes to investing in our renewables and our north-east, how on earth does Anas Sarwar square that with the fact that his party has just dumped its £28 billion flagship green prosperity fund? [
Interruption
.]
Anas Sarwar does not want to hear from me and he does not want to hear from his own councillor—somebody who was a Labour councillor before quitting the party in protest at Anas Sarwar’s plans—so why does he not listen to the trade union movement? The GMB union’s Gary Smith has warned of the dangers of “cliff-edge policies” for North Sea oil and gas. [
Interruption
.] I will quote him directly: he said:
“The inconvenient truth for some is that the UK is still going to need oil and gas until 2050 and ... beyond, and a ban on new licences ignores this reality”.
The First Minister:
Let me say to Anas Sarwar, to end on a point of consensus, that neither he nor I see the future of Scotland being in unlimited extraction of oil and gas. The difference between Anas Sarwar and me is that he believes that turning off the taps today will be good for the north-east and good for Scotland, while I believe in a just transition that means that we will not leave a single worker in the north-east on the scrap heap. It is a shame that UK Labour does not feel the same way.
A proposal for new legislation that is debated by Parliament.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
The Opposition are the political parties in the House of Commons other than the largest or Government party. They are called the Opposition because they sit on the benches opposite the Government in the House of Commons Chamber. The largest of the Opposition parties is known as Her Majesty's Opposition. The role of the Official Opposition is to question and scrutinise the work of Government. The Opposition often votes against the Government. In a sense the Official Opposition is the "Government in waiting".
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
A group of workers who have united to promote their common interests.
