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Badenoch to call for end to windfall tax and ban on new oil licences
Kemi Badenoch is expected to promote the oil and gas sector and call for an end to the UK windfall tax and the ban on new oil licences at the Scottish Conservative conference in Edinburgh on Friday.
Badenoch will address her first Scottish party conference as leader at Murrayfield Stadium, followed by her Scottish counterpart Russell Findlay on Saturday.
Her speech will accuse the UK Government of 'killing' the oil and gas sector, claiming 'renewing our party and our country means standing up for our oil and gas industry'.
The energy profits levy was put in place under the previous Conservative government but extended when Labour entered power.
Designed to fund interventions to bring down household bills, the policy has been criticised by those in the industry.
If the measure remains in place to 2030 as intended, Badenoch is expected to say 'there will be no industry left to tax'.
Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay will then deliver his inaugural address as leader at the second day of the conference on Saturday.
Findlay's speech will come just days after he accused SNP ministers at Holyrood of 'costing Scotland £1bn a year in lost growth and countless billions through their sheer incompetence'. Scottish Conservative website Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay will deliver his inaugural address as leader at the annual Scottish Tory conference on Saturday.
The conference, which the Scottish Tories say will feature a 'packed agenda of fringe events, receptions and debates', follows a series of recent blows to the party's confidence.
On Thursday morning, yet another Scottish Tory councillor defected to Reform UK.
Aberdeenshire councillor Lauren Knight was the 15th to join Nigel Farage's party in Scotland, and she's the 14th to defect from the Conservative party.
The loss came just over a week after the Scottish Tories came within inches of losing their deposit at the Hamilton, Larkhall, and Stonehouse by-election where Reform UK beat their candidate by nearly 5,500 votes.
The Tory candidate in Hamilton scored just 5.98% of the vote last week and was 263 votes away from losing his deposit.
The conference comes amid major Reform UK gains in England.
In early May, Farage's party took over a Labour stronghold in England and made other political gains.
The party took control of ten local English councils, won two mayoral races and added a fifth MP to its ranks in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election.
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