John Swinney accuses Russell Findlay of 'barefaced dishonesty' during oil and gas clash
John Swinney has been accused of turning his back on the North Sea oil and gas sector.
John Swinney has accused Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay of “barefaced dishonesty” over his party’s U-turn on net zero - as the First Minister came under fire for the SNP “turning its back” on the North Sea.
Mr Findlay highlighted the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery and accused the Scottish Government of attempting to “shut down all oil and gas production” when in power with the Scottish Greens.
Speaking at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, the Scottish Conservative leader stressed Scotland “will now need to import all of our petrol, diesel and other fuels”.
He said: “This is the price of the SNP’s and Labour’s hostility towards oil and gas.
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“Before more damage is done, will John Swinney drop his Government’s presumption against new oil and gas exploration?”
The Scottish Government has delayed the publication of its new energy strategy by two years, with a draft version touting a potential policy of a presumption against new drilling.
Mr Findlay accused the First Minister of bringing “dangerous cranks”, the Scottish Greens, into government, who he claimed want to “shut down all oil and gas production”.
Pointing to the closure at Grangemouth, Mr Findlay said: “The greatest blame lies with the government that turned its back on Scotland’s world-leading and innovative oil and gas industry.”
But Mr Swinney insisted the economy must adapt to the “reality” of the climate crisis.
The Scotsman previously revealed Mr Findlay now opposes the Scottish Government’s net zero target, warning it risks “economic sabotage”.
Mr Swinney said: “I know the Conservatives are involved in a pivot on net zero and they in fact want to deny the climate challenges that we face.”
The First Minister reiterated that any oil and gas licensing decision “must be the subject of a climate compatibility assessment” - a policy pushed by former Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson.
He said the Scottish Government will “support industry to transition to that reality” of transition required in the climate crisis.
But Mr Findlay insisted “we are being honest with the public about the costs of net zero”. Pointing to Mr Swinney, he added: “They are not.”
The Scottish Tory leader added: “Instead of learning lessons from the SNP’s harmful approach to oil and gas, the Labour government is copying it. Labour’s copycat approach will cost more Scottish jobs, it will increase bills and it will do more to harm the environment by importing energy from overseas.”
Mr Swinney pointed to the Scottish Tory leader voting in November to support Scotland’s 2045 net zero target remaining intact and then highlighted Mr Findlay’s comments to The Scotsman that it was a “refreshing outbreak of honesty” for his UK leader Kemi Badenoch to call for net zero targets to be scrapped.
The First Minister added: “I call it barefaced dishonesty in front of the people of this country.”
Mr Swinney accused the Tories of being happy “to vote for climate change targets one minute and press this Government to act on those climate change targets and then desert the field when the going gets tough”.
In response, Mr Findlay accused the First Minister of having “built a career” on “barefaced dishonesty”.
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