After near extinction at the election, the SNP is clinging to the oil and gas row as one route back to political success. Labour must honor that promise of “no cliff edge” for workers, said Dave Doogan, the party’s energy spokesperson, or it is Scottish workers who “will pay the heaviest price.”
For their part, Labour is resting its hopes on Great British Energy, the government’s much-touted state-backed energy company, which will be based in Scotland. Scotland Secretary Ian Murray said: “The clean energy transition represents a huge opportunity to generate growth, tackle the cost-of-living crisis and make us energy independent once again. We are aiming for cheaper, clean energy by 2030 while also helping to create 650,000 jobs across the U.K. and 69,000 in Scotland.”
Policy plans
Labour’s political promise to move the U.K. economy quickly away from reliance on fossil fuels also has an environmental imperative. The government’s independent advisors, the Climate Change Committee, said in their progress report last year: “The U.K. will continue to need some oil and gas until it reaches net zero … [but] this does not in itself justify the development of new North Sea fields.”
North Sea production should be kept “as low as possible,” the CCC added, with a rapid shift instead to renewables, better energy efficiency, and electrifying industry and transport.
Green think tanks have ideas on making sure reduced emissions are compatible with protecting workers in older, dirtier parts of the energy sector. There are policies ready to roll which could “significantly soften the impact” for those employees, said Adam Bell, former head of energy at the old Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, now at consultancy Stonehaven.
Labour should plow £1.1 billion a year into a green skills training fund, for example, a report from the left-of-center Institute for Public Policy Research said earlier this year, and revive plans making it easier for oil and gas workers to shift to clean energy offshore without having to get recertified. This would be complemented with beefed-up careers advice for workers moving from fossil fuels into renewables, and unions should have a seat at the table in planning the green transition, the report said.
“Workers are very concerned about job security, and if there was a clear path for them out of the [fossil fuel] industry, they’d be interested in taking it,” said Joshua Emden, the report’s author.
Odd couples
But industry leaders and union heads remain wary of Labour’s plans, a shared skepticism which has created an unlikely alliance between workers and bosses.
The GMB signed a memorandum of understanding last November with Brindex, the punchy oil and gas lobby group, focused on stronger worker protections in exchange for a united front in the push for “pro-jobs policies and strengthening energy security.” When OEUK published its own pre-election manifesto, it backed greater union representation in the industry, too.
And it goes beyond agreements on paper. Oil and gas bosses are renewing their relationships with unions, including coordinating their lobbying efforts in Whitehall, according to three figures familiar with sector plans.
One industry figure said: “I can’t remember a time when the unions and industry have been quite so aligned on the risk to U.K. energy security and jobs.”
“There’s certainly a common cause in ensuring that the people who work in the sector are absolutely at the heart of the transition,” OEUK Chief Executive David Whitehouse added.
“We’re strange bedfellows,” acknowledged David Latin, boss of oil and gas giant Serica. “But I would say what we’re all interested in, collectively, is growth in U.K. investment and growth in jobs. And the conversations we’ve had with the unions suggest that they understand where they’re coming from on this.”
It spells trouble for Starmer and Miliband, predicted one of the figures familiar with sector plans referenced above. “I think, also, that the unions will become increasingly more powerful and highlight the risk of North Sea jobs,” they said.
Additional reporting by Charlie Cooper