SNP MP says Labour will divert Scotland’s oil cash to build English power plants

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has accused Labour of planning to divert £20billion of tax receipts from Scotland’s oil wealth to build nuclear power plants in England.

The MP also insisted his embattled party can win the general election north of the border and said First Minister John Swinney would be dropping divisive gender politics to campaign on the economy, jobs and the NHS.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Mail, the Aberdeen South MP:

• Backed Swinney’s refusal to support sanctions against iPad shame MSP Michael Matheson.
• Revealed he would be willing to work with Keir Starmer in a hung parliament.
• Admitted he is devastated to be missing a trip of a lifetime to Germany to watch Scotland in the Euros after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a snap general election for July 4.

Flynn’s assured performances at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons have won him the respect of MPs from across the political divide and he is widely tipped as a future leader of the SNP.

If he were to lose his seat at Westminster there has been speculation he would look to stand at the next Holyrood election, potentially positioning himself to succeed Swinney.

He is understood to have been one of the loudest voices calling for Humza Yousaf to tear up the Bute House Agreement and sack Green MSPs Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater from government – a move which ultimately cost Yousaf his job.

When asked if the former First Minister had made the right decision, Flynn answered with an unequivocal “Yes”.

He added: “Of course we now occupy a minority government position in Holyrood, but that’s not unusual for the SNP and much of our best work has been achieved as a minority government.

“I’ve got absolute confidence John and the rest of my colleagues in Edinburgh will be able to navigate the parliamentary arithmetic in Edinburgh whilst we get on with the job of putting Scotland first in Westminster.”

He went on to accuse an incoming Labour administration at Westminster of planning to sacrifice tens of thousands of Scottish oil industry jobs in coming years while using North Sea tax revenues to fund energy jobs in England.

He said: “Over £20billion is to flow from Scotland’s natural resources to the Treasury over the next six years, with £10billion exported last year alone.

“Meanwhile 100,000 jobs are set to be lost in Scotland’s energy sector and Scotland is paying the highest energy bills in the UK.

“These are not just oil jobs, they are energy jobs, the people who work in these jobs are engineers, they are the people who will be able to develop the net zero technologies of the future.

“So if you decimate the industry, then you don’t have the just transition. Labour say they will create GB Energy, but nobody has a clue what it means.

“But what we do know is they want to take Scotland’s oil wealth and Scotland’s reb newable wealth, and they want to channel it into building nuclear power stations in England.

“This is just a repetition of what’s happened over many generations in Scotland, and we shouldn’t allow it to happen again.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar described Flynn’s comments as “desperate”.

While the SNP have been forecast by some pollsters to be facing huge losses, Flynn believes that voters’ minds will be focussed as election day looms and that Swinney has the popularity and policy platform to win.

He added: “The only the only poll that matters ultimately is the one that comes on Independence Day on the fourth of July.

“I’m very confident because we have the most popular and the most trusted politician in Scotland leading our party in John Swinney.

“He’s been very clear that we will be focused on the economy, the NHS and of course eradicating child poverty.

“What Labour are offering is a continuation of £18 billion pounds of public sector cuts which would impact the ability not just to attract investment into Scotland, but also to deal with the crisis that’s facing the NHS.

“If we look at child poverty, Keir Starmer won’t even commit to changing the two child cap in the benefits system to lift tens of thousands of kids out of poverty because he wants to continue with Tory policies.

“So there’s a clear dividing line between what we stand for, what we believe, and what the Labour Party stand for and believes in, and the public are going to have to decide who is putting Scotland’s interests first.

“I am very confident with those arguments on the table that the SNP will do very well.

“Despite wanting to be Prime Minister for so long now Keir Starmer still doesn’t have an answer to the question as to how people in Scotland get to vote to be an independent nation, and he’s going to have to come to the table before polling day and explain what he believes the mechanism should be.”

While Labour are out ahead in the polls a hung parliament where nobody has overall control remains a possibility, which could leave the SNP in a position to work with Labour to put Starmer in Number 10.

And Flynn made clear he would be willing to work with the Labour leader, adding: “We would want to be the Labour Party’s conscience and keep them honest. We believe in single market access, we believe there needs to be more migration, we believe in investing in net zero jobs, because that’s how you improve the economy.

“We reject austerity, unlike Keir Starmer, and of course we believe the people of Scotland have the right to a democratic debate to decide their future.

“So we could quite comfortably in a Westminster context be the conscience of the Labour Party, and in doing so put Scotland first, because that’s what we do. It’s our raison d’etre. And that’s something that the Labour Party are very uncomfortable with.”

When asked if he believed the SNP had taken a wrong turn in pursuing gender self-ID policies under Nicola Sturgeon, Flynn gave one of the strongest indications yet of a new focus under the party’s new leadership.

He said: “I’m a Scotland football fan, so I’m an optimist, but I also always look to the future and that’s where that’s where my focus is at the moment.

“We’ve got six weeks to win the trust of the people of Scotland and their priorities right now are the cost of living crisis, the economy, the NHS, eradicate child poverty, and making sure that Scotland has a say over its own future.

“That’s where my focus has been for a long time and it’s where the party’s focus is right now.

“We have a party leader who’s trusted, who is popular, and who will be unashamed about putting Scotland first because that’s what people want to hear from the SNP. When the SNP wins, Scotland wins.”

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Swinney has been accused of “defending the indefensible” after refusing to support a parliamentary committee’s recommended sanctions on former Health Secretary Michael Matheson after he appeared to lie about his family running up an £11,000 iPad data roaming bill – a sum which was initially paid with public money.

He was sanctioned last week but the decision will now go before MSPs for approval, and Swinney has stated he will not support it, claiming the process had been “prejudiced” by Tory MSP Annie Wells.

The move has provoked a storm of criticism but Flynn – who will not get to vote on the matter – has thrown his full support behind Swinney’s decision.

He said: “There was of course a significant mistake made by Michael. His children accessed data to watch football against his knowledge.

“But the public will understandably be furious about a Tory MSP trying to make political capital out of someone’s difficulties.”

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