Sunak attacks Labour and SNP over North Sea oil industry jobs
RISHI Sunak launched the Scottish Conservatives manifesto yesterday with an attack on both Labour and the SNP over independence, the European Union and North Sea oil and gas.
The Prime Minister accused the SNP of an “independence obsession” and said it meant “they’ve neglected everything else”.
Mr Sunak said: “If the SNP win a majority of the seats at this election, they will treat that as a mandate to carry on campaigning for independence for another five years.”
He said backing the Conservatives in Scotland was “a vote to put this issue to bed” and “move past these tired, stale arguments and to go forward united and together”.
The Prime Minister warned that voters had a choice over whether “the divisive constitutional wrangling of the last decade continues”.
He went on to insist that his party can make progress in Scotland, criticising the SNP for making Scotland “the high-tax capital of the UK”.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross also addressed activists at the Edinburgh event and said the Tories could still give the SNP a “bad night” on July 4, while admitting the election campaign had become a “tough scrap” and recent scandal on alleged election betting had been “very difficult”.
On the eighth anniversary of the Brexit referendum, the Prime Minister accused Sir Keir Starmer of a potential “sellout” over fishing to the EU.
A series of polls has put the Conservatives considerably behind Labour in the race for Number 10 and also suggests the party faces challenges from the SNP in seats in the north-east and south of Scotland.
They also face threats from the right, from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which is trying to appeal to disillusioned Tory voters.
During his speech, Mr Sunak warned voters considering backing Reform UK that doing so could “let the SNP in through the back door”.
“It is only the Scottish Conservatives that will stand up for the North Sea’s fishing industry,” Mr Sunak said in a speech at the Apex Hotel in Edinburgh.
“The EU is already making clear that the price of any deal that Labour wants is a sellout of our fishing industry, and who doubts that Keir Starmer would pay that?
“And while the SNP would surrender all of our new freedoms, it is only the Scottish Conservatives who will stand up for Scotland’s farmers from the Borders to the north-east.”
Mr Sunak also promised to “stand full square behind Scotland’s North
Sea oil and gas industry”, attacking both the SNP and Labour over their stances.
He said: “Our North Sea industry isn’t safe with Labour. The Conservative Government that I lead will always stand full square behind Scotland’s North Sea oil and gas industry.
“We’re committed to new licences, more investment in infrastructure and skills and energy security for our country. We’ll deliver a secure future for the North Sea industry and for the workers that it employs, whereas Labour want to stop all new licences in the North Sea from day one of a Labour government.
“Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband want to tax the UK’S oil and gas sector and the 100,000 Scottish jobs that it supports into oblivion.”
To laughter from supporters, Mr Sunak said: “But Labour don’t want to ban all oil and gas it turns out – just British oil and gas. I mean, they would rather virtue-signal to eco-zealots than protect jobs here at home.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer ruled out negotiating with the SNP over a new independence referendum if John Swinney’s party won a majority of seats on Thursday next week.
But on the constitution, the Prime Minister said only the Scottish Conservatives have the “courage to stand up to the nationalists”.
He said: “It’s only Douglas [Ross] and his team that have been prepared to properly stand up to the SNP, standing against both Nicola Sturgeon’s gender recognition reforms and the dangerous hate crime act. It shows you that only the Scottish Conservatives have the courage to stand up to the nationalists.”
He added: “If the SNP win the majority of seats at this election, they will treat that as a mandate to carry on campaigning for independence for another five years. A vote for the Scottish Conservatives is a vote to put this issue to bed, to move past these tired and stale arguments and to go forward united and together.”
Labour’s Shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray said: “Douglas Ross and Rishi Sunak are hoping Scots will forget the last 14 years, where a Tory government crashed the economy, sent mortgages and prices soaring and partied during the pandemic.”
Richard Thomson, the SNP’S candidate for Gordon and Buchan, said: “After 14 years of disaster after disaster from Westminster, it’s clear the Tories’ obsession with the SNP is all they have left. The Tory manifesto mentioned the SNP 88 times in 76 pages. They are rattled because they know a well-deserved democratic drubbing is on its way”.
Our North Sea industry isn’t safe with Labour