It was a surreal moment in parliament on Wednesday as the Conservative benches erupted in cheers for Andy Burnham’s Jackdaw announcement while his own Labour colleagues sat stony-faced.
But as the new MP for Aberdeen South, you can believe my cheers were among the loudest. Because for my constituents, the long-delayed green light for Jackdaw was not just a win for common sense; it was a victory for the city of Aberdeen itself.
Two years after the Conservatives first approved Jackdaw, the Labour government has finally stopped dithering and given the go-ahead for new extraction in the North Sea gas field. It’s a huge boost for jobs and investment in the oil and gas industry, its supply chain and the wider Aberdeen economy.
But while Jackdaw has brought hope to people in Aberdeen, Labour and the SNP must do more to earn their trust. I became the MP for this area just a few months ago in a by-election. While all eyes were on Makerfield and the Labour leadership in June, we were fighting a very different contest in the North East of Scotland.
Andy Burnham wins Makerfield by-election to seal parliamentary return
The battle was for former SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn‘s recently vacated seat of Aberdeen South, a constituency where everybody knows someone working in oil and gas. It’s the number one issue here – and our housing market, high streets and local economy are all linked to the sector too.
For people in Aberdeen, it’s not just frustrating that we are importing more and more oil and gas from abroad, while shutting down domestic production – it’s deeply unfair.
Oil and gas workers are watching their jobs disappear while their counterparts in Norway drill from the very same basin. They are treated as though their work is dirty and damaging, instead of being appreciated for the skilled and often dangerous jobs they do to keep the lights on across the country. And they’ve had to watch the SNP and Labour gamble with their jobs, livelihoods, businesses and mortgages, all to appease Green pressure from the left.
When I decided to contest the by-election, I knew it was an opportunity to send Labour and the SNP a message. We made it a referendum on oil and gas, and the people of Aberdeen responded in a landslide.
My win for the Scottish Conservatives rattled the SNP. Stephen Flynn responded that the party needed to “reflect heavily” on the result. But while some in the SNP have made warmer noises towards the oil and gas industry, and delegates at the recent SNP conference voted to back new drilling, John Swinney remains too afraid of his Green-leaning voters in the central belt of Scotland to reverse Nicola Sturgeon’s damaging presumption against new oil and gas extraction.
And it made Labour listen too – but while Andy Burnham has eventually done the right thing with Jackdaw, people in Aberdeen have no faith that he will prove a friend to the oil and gas industry going forward.
The prime minister transparently delayed approving Jackdaw until after the Holborn St Pancras by-election a few weeks ago rather than risk losing Labour votes in London, even though he knew jobs were in the balance. And reports now suggest that energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh is minded to reject the next North Sea project awaiting approval – Rosebank oil field.
Jackdaw’s approval means oil and gas workers can breathe a sigh of relief, but in order to truly protect jobs and industry in the North East of Scotland, it needs to be the start of a pipeline of new projects in the North Sea.
While we still use oil and gas – and everyone agrees that we will need fossil fuels for decades to come – it’s just common sense to use what we produce here in the UK.
It means highly skilled jobs in the industry can stay here in the UK, downstream supply chain businesses can be supported here in the UK, and the tax revenues come to the UK exchequer. This is the obvious, sensible approach for as long as we still need oil and gas – but it’s also crucial for our longer-term energy transition.
It is those same oil and gas workers and businesses that we need for our future transition to renewables. If we let that expertise and technology leave our shores, we’ll be in a much worse position as we transition to green energy going forward.
Aberdeen doesn’t need to be facing decline. It should have a bright future ahead of it, both as the centre of oil and gas production in the UK for many more years to come and as a future hub for the renewable energy industry. However, in order to get there, both of Scotland’s governments need to back a common-sense approach to North Sea drilling.
For the SNP, that means getting off the fence and reversing their damaging presumption against new oil and gas. For Labour, it means approving Rosebank and backing new drilling.
Jackdaw must be the start of a North Sea revival, not its final chapter.
