But a clutch of Labour politicians in Holyrood publicly back union campaigns to keep issuing new North Sea licenses — opposing a policy central to their colleagues’ green ambitions in Westminster.
And the rebellion goes to the very top. “To put it bluntly, if the choice is more expensive imports from despotic regimes like Russia or new oil and gas, I think the answer has to be new oil and gas,” Anas Sarwar, Labour’s leader in Holyrood, told the New Statesman last month.
Some Labour MPs in Scotland hint, too, at support for more drilling. “When the proposal to drill Rosebank [oil and gas field] goes in, I think we could send a signal over that,” said Torcuil Crichton, MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, referring to a legal judgment threatening the future of the North Sea’s biggest untapped oil and gas field. That signal should show workers “that we are on their side,” he said.
Richard Hardy, who also advises Holyrood as a member of the JTC, said such inconsistent messaging has left oil and gas workers disoriented.
“The constant to-and-fro-ing around new extraction, the Rosebank stuff, the court case,” he said, “the lack of clarity on the government’s position on future extraction … There is a level of uncertainty [for workers] about ‘Well, where do I go now?’”
The North Sea is home to “very, very intelligent and switched-on workers,” said Claire Peden, an organizer at Unite the Union — but “a lot of them don’t believe that it [job losses] is an immediate threat.”