Kemi Badenoch’s Conservative Party — now fiercely anti-net zero and pro-oil and gas — won the vote in Aberdeen South, unseating the Scottish National Party. Oil and gas firms are major employers in the constituency, where many jobs linked to drilling have been lost in recent years as reserves depleted and investment dried up.
Badenoch argues Miliband’s policies are making things worse, and put the issue at the heart of the party’s local campaign. Labour finished fourth with just 5.4 percent of the vote, having come second with nearly 25 percent as recently as the 2024 general election.
The victorious Tory candidate, Douglas Lumsden, told voters on his leaflets that a Tory win would “send a very clear message to Ed Miliband down in London.”
The union question
Miliband and Burnham will brush off the criticisms from opposition parties. But warnings from Labour’s own union allies will be harder to ignore.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, the country’s second-biggest union, and an outspoken critic of Miliband’s North Sea approach called Aberdeen South “a direct result of failed Labour policies on oil and gas.” Louise Gilmour, GMB Scotland’s general secretary, said it was “entirely predictable that a Tory would win this election by promising to protect the North Sea.” Gilmour warned of a “industrial catastrophe unfolding in plain sight.”
Those words won’t go unnoticed in the Burnham camp, who have pledged to put the concerns of ordinary workers front and center. (Team Burnham declined to comment on the Aberdeen South result or their North Sea stance on Friday.)