Keir Starmer urged to ditch plan to ban new North Sea oil and gas licences

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Keir Starmer is being urged to ditch his plan to ban new oil and gas licences without a “viable” plan to replace North Sea jobs.Trade union Unite branded the policy “premature and irresponsible” and claimed it will create a “cliff-edge” for oil workers.Labour has vowed to stop issuing new offshore licences if it wins power at Westminster in a bid to tackle fossil fuel emissions - although it will honour any that are granted before the general election.That includes the controversial Rosebank oil field off Shetland - the largest untapped development in the North Sea - which was green-lit by the Tories last year.Launching its new campaign dubbed ‘No Ban Without A Plan’, Unite - the largest union for offshore workers - claimed the policy would only lead to greater fossil fuel imports while threatening North East jobs.Instead, it’s calling for a plan from Labour to create 35,000 new “energy transition jobs” in Scotland by 2030.That could include in sectors like wind power manufacturing and operations, hydrogen, carbon capture and oil rig decommissioning.Unite General Secretary, Sharon Graham says: “Labour needs to pull back from this irresponsible policy.“There is clearly no viable plan for the replacement of North Sea jobs or energy security.“We should not be letting go of one rope until we have hold of another.“These types of transitions must have workers at the heart.

Unite will not stand by and let these workers be thrown on the scrap heap.“North Sea workers cannot be sacrificed on the altar of net zero.”We previously told how green jobs in Scotland have so far fallen far short of the 130,000 posts by 2020 promised by the SNP government.The Record revealed in January how Scotland failed to hit a target for domestic