SNP MPs team up with Tories in protest over oil and gas windfall tax
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn posed for a photo outside Parliament on Wednesday alongside Tory MP Harriet Cross, SNP MPs Kirsty Blackman and Seamus Logan, and Russell Borthwick, head of the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce (AGCC).
They have given their backing to an open letter organised by the AGCC, signed by more than 2500 energy industry workers and bosses as well as people whose jobs and businesses depend on the sector, demanding the Government drop its Energy Price Levy.
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The levy, due to end in 2030, means the effective rate of tax on oil and gas companies is 78%, according to the AGCC.
This has already cost 10,000 jobs in the sector since the tax was introduced and its continuation will result in 'deindustrialisation and mass unemployment', signatories claimed.
They highlighted the recent example of Aberdeen's Harbour Energy, which announced it would cut its workforce by 25%, some 250 jobs, because of tax pressures.
The letter said: 'Regrettably, we find ourselves in the economically and environmentally incoherent position whereby government policy is bringing a premature end to the oil and gas sector whilst the UK simultaneously relies on increasing amounts of carbon heavy and costly imports from overseas to meet its energy needs.
'The situation is absurd, and we urge you to act now before it's too late. The Climate Change Committee highlights the UK needs up to 15 billion barrels of oil and gas up until 2050 and our world-class oil and gas sector can meet almost half of this, unlocking £150bn to the UK economy.'
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The letter demanded an 'immediate end' to the windfall tax, first brought in by the Tories, to 'protect jobs, generate economic growth and greater energy and national security for the UK'.
It added: 'The alternative, added to by the regrettable demise of Grangemouth Refinery, is deindustrialisation and mass unemployment, something any responsible government must avoid at all costs.'
Flynn said: "The Labour Government's fiscal regime puts energy security in jeopardy, it causes mass redundancies and importantly it runs the real risk of ending net-zero ambitions because if you don't retain the vast skills we have in our energy sector today, you lose the people who will deliver the green energy of tomorrow.
'We were promised that Westminster's tax policy would lower bills and see investment in net-zero, but that's clearly not been the case with bills soaring and key projects like Acorn are starved of investment in favour of English sites.
The UK Government was approached for comment.
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