Stephen Flynn branded ‘brass necked’ over SNP U-turn on oil and gas

Jobs in the oil industry in Aberdeen have been put at risk by windfall tax, says one employer as it announces planned cuts.

The SNP has been accused of a “brass neck” U-turn on oil and gas after 250 jobs were set to be axed.

Aberdeen-based Harbour Energy blamed the North Sea windfall tax for the cuts and the Nationalists are now demanding UK ministers scrap it.

But it was the SNP that led the campaign for a surcharge on profits in 2022.

We can also reveal Harbour bosses pleaded with then First Minister Humza Yousaf last year for his help to ease the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) before it did catastrophic damage – but were ignored.

Instead, weeks later, in a slap in the face for the company, Yousaf doubled down on his support for the levy, declaring: “Don’t get me wrong, we support a windfall tax.”

His speech that day was introduced by SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, who this week visited Harbour workers facing redundancy, pledging: “I stand with (you)”.

Last night, Scottish Conservative shadow energy secretary Douglas Lumsden said: “Stephen Flynn has some brass neck pretending to back the industry.

“He and his SNP pals cheered on the windfall tax, tried to shut down North Sea drilling, and fought tooth and nail against key projects.

“Now he wants Scots to believe he stands with the very workers his party threw under the bus. Give me a break. The reality is their party has repeatedly ignored concerns from the oil and gas sector. Blame for these redundancies lies squarely with both the SNP and Labour’s continued hostility towards the industry.”

Household energy prices doubled in the wake of the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Opposition parties called for a windfall tax on North Sea profits. Flynn led an SNP Commons debate in March 2022, demanding a surcharge on all companies making extra money during the crisis, while Nicola Sturgeon told Holyrood: “We have called on the UK Government for an extended windfall tax on organisations including oil and gas companies.”

The EPL introduced by the Tories saw the tax rate on North Sea profits soar from 40% to 65%, raising around £5 billion a year. Then the level rose to 75% with a new end date of 2028 – all with SNP backing – but the industry warned it would hit investment and jobs.

Harbour Energy managing director Scott Barr was among those granted an audience with Yousaf in Aberdeen on January 15 last year.

The company stated in the Scottish Parliament’s lobbying register: “We outlined our concerns about the fiscal environment, specifically the impact of the energy profits levy on the sector.”

However, Yousaf returned to the city on February 19 to give a speech on the North Sea’s future.

He said: “Our oil and gas industry has been good for Scotland… we will not abandon the industry.”

But while he opposed Labour plans to increase the EPL, he added: “Don’t get me wrong, we support a windfall tax.”

The Tories extended the scheme to 2029 but gave incentives for further exploration and the green light to the Rosebank oilfield off Shetland, which Yousaf condemned as “the wrong decision”.

Labour has since hiked the EPL rate to 78% and the expiry date to 2030, while Rosebank is in limbo again.

Harbour employs 3,400 people globally but claims the windfall tax wiped out its profits last year.

On Wednesday, it announced a quarter of its Aberdeen staff are set to go – following on from 350 axed in 2023. The latest round, it claimed, was “due mainly to the government’s ongoing punitive fiscal position and a challenging regulatory environment”.

Flynn accused Sir Keir Starmer of “destroying jobs in Scotland”, telling the Commons: “That’s 250 jobs in my constituency gone in the blink of his eye.”

He and other SNP MPs later wrote to the Prime Minister: “Unless there is serious action now we are concerned a tidal wave of job losses will come… just as you were warned would happen.”

And on Friday Flynn tweeted: “Taken aback by the reception from workers at Harbour Energy in Aberdeen today.

“It’s a time of great distress for them – with 250 jobs set to be lost… I stand with them.”

The North Sea industry supports 94,000 Scottish jobs, but 400 were lost when the Grangemouth oil refinery shut last month.

Last night, Harbour Energy said: “We are in regular and close contact with government and have consistently made clear the implications (of the EPL).

“(Ministers) should not be surprised we are being forced to take the steps we’re now taking.”

Acting Energy Secretary Gillian Martin said: “The Scottish Government is deeply concerned at planned job losses in the North East, and have called for an end to the EPL, which was introduced by the UK Government and continued by the current UK Government. It was supposed to be a temporary measure, and we must see an end date, as it is now affecting investment and jobs.

“The UK Government must listen carefully to concerns being expressed by the industry.”

Harbour Energy also lobbied Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar last year. A party spokesman said it has “consistently engaged with the industry and will continue to do so”.

‘More good jobs being jettisoned’

Politicians are “stumbling on” while Scotland’s oil and gas industry sheds hundreds of jobs, a leading union official has warned.

Writing exclusively for The Sunday Post, GMB Scotland Secretary Louise Gilmour hit out at ministers for offering “the same old platitudes, warm words and empty promises”.

GMB Scotland secretary Louise Gilmour. Image: DC Thomson

It comes after Harbour Energy scrapped 250 jobs in Aberdeen from its onshore operations. The UK’s largest producer of oil and gas claimed hostile fiscal policies prompted the decision to slow investment in the country and said it would now allocate funds overseas.

About 600 roles have been lost in the past fortnight across the UK’s energy sector – a development that industry leaders say should send shockwaves to the very top of the government.

Gilmour said: “It was another black day for all of us, awful for the workers at risk, as we continue to stagger backwards into the future, jettisoning good jobs in oil and gas today while blethering about tomorrow.”

Russell Borthwick, chief executive of Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, has warned “we do not have years, we have months” to reverse the decline in investment and jobs in the industry.

Bosses are calling for the removal of the windfall tax on energy giants before the next financial year. However, the UK Government said in the Autumn Budget it expects the Energy Profits Levy to remain in place until 2030.