{"id":479283,"date":"2025-10-07T00:55:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T00:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/479283\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T00:55:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T00:55:19","slug":"badenoch-accuses-snp-and-labour-of-running-scotland-down-with-ruinous-green-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/479283\/","title":{"rendered":"Badenoch accuses SNP and Labour of ‘running Scotland down’ with ruinous green policies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kemi Badenoch<\/a> has accused the SNP<\/a> and Labour of \u2018running Scotland down\u2019 and warned that Europe\u2019s oil capital is \u2018dying\u2019 because of their policies on oil and gas.<\/p>\n

The Tory leader<\/a> said it is \u2018heartbreaking\u2019 that Aberdeen is \u2018fading away\u2019 due to \u2018bad management\u2019 by the Scottish and UK governments.<\/p>\n

She stepped up her calls to \u2018drill baby drill\u2019 and said that supporting new fields can unleash \u00a3150 billion of new developments in the North Sea.<\/p>\n

And she insisted that Scotland needs the Tories to bring the message of \u2018sound money, fiscal responsibility and a stronger economy\u2019.<\/p>\n

It comes after Russell Findlay pledged that the Scottish Conservatives<\/a> will be \u2018Scotland\u2019s party of economic opportunity\u2019 and make efforts to boost growth his top issue in the run-up to the Holyrood elections.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a Scottish reception at the Conservative conference in Manchester, Ms Badenoch said that when she boarded a plane to Aberdeen last month other passengers told her: \u2018Please help us, Aberdeen is dying.\u2019<\/p>\n

She added: \u2018It was absolutely heartbreaking to hear that. Aberdeen is one of those places that is so synonymous with growth and wealth and prosperity. But due to bad management, bad government by the SNP and Labour it is fading away.<\/p>\n

\"Kemi <\/p>\n

Kemi Badenoch has blasted the SNP and Labour for their drive to net zero – and said they are ‘running Scotland down’<\/p>\n

\"Scottish <\/p>\n

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay told conference the Tories will be \u2018Scotland\u2019s party of economic opportunity\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t think my views on net zero are news to anyone in this room but making sure that \u201cdrill, baby drill\u201d was a policy which we applied to the North Sea has been at the forefront of all of our policies.<\/p>\n

\u2018We need to back oil and gas. It is completely crazy that we are importing fuel from Norway drilled in the North Sea while banning drilling in the North Sea ourselves. And the people who don\u2019t understand that gas is a transition fuel if we are going to tackle carbon emissions, the people who don\u2019t understand that are the same people who are running Scotland down.<\/p>\n

\u2018They\u2019ve never worked in business, they don\u2019t know where money comes from, they just think you just shake a magic money tree.\u2019<\/p>\n

During the Tory conference, the party has relentlessly focused on efforts to control borders and boost the economy.<\/p>\n

Ms Badenoch said: \u2018At a time when we know we are in a dire straits economically there is \u00a3150 billion lying in the North Sea.<\/p>\n

\u2018That is money that will get not just Aberdeen, not just Scotland but the whole of the United Kingdom growing again and we need to make sure that the Conservatives come back and get oil and gas out of these fields.\u2019<\/p>\n

Since coming to power, the Labour government has banned new oil and gas licences. It has also increased the windfall tax on North Sea profits to 38 per cent, which results in an overall 78 per cent tax rate on oil and gas profits, and also extended it to 2030.<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is reportedly now considering approving \u2018tie backs\u2019, which would allow new exploration at oil and gas sites adjacent to existing fields.<\/p>\n

Last month, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said the SNP Government now supports deciding whether to support new drilling on a \u2018case by case basis\u2019.<\/p>\n

Industry leaders are also pressing hard for Labour to reduce the tax burden on firms and fear that any move to allow some new fields will be worthless as new development won\u2019t happen unless action is taken on the levels of taxation.<\/p>\n

During her speech to the Scottish reception, Ms Badenoch also said that during the upcoming Holyrood election campaign needs to highlight the need for economic growth, and condemned how the UK is borrowing to pay for welfare \u2013 and she said that Scotland is \u2018one of the places where we see this problem most clearly\u2019.<\/p>\n

Ms Badenoch said: \u2018We need a Conservative Party in Scotland, we need Russell to do well, we need people who can bring the message of sound money, fiscal responsibility and a stronger economy.\u2019<\/p>\n

She added: \u2018The public need to know that there is a serious and responsible party out there. We acknowledge the mistakes we made, we know we got things wrong, but we are optimistic about our future.<\/p>\n

\"Aberdeen <\/p>\n

Aberdeen was seen as Europe’s oil capital during the North Sea boom, but Mrs Badenoch warned the city was \u2018fading away\u2019 due to bad management by the Scots and UK governments<\/p>\n

\u2018We are the decent centre-right, we are the compassionate centre-right. We are the ones who think about the impact on people who look after people. We need to remember who we are and we need to get out there and keep fighting for Scotland and for the United Kingdom.\u2019<\/p>\n

She said the party \u2018can spend all day criticising our opponents\u2019 but needs to focus on what the Tories can do, including growing the private sector \u2013 and claimed people are \u2018leaving our country in droves\u2019 under the SNP\u2019s tax regime and now Labour\u2019s.<\/p>\n

She added: \u2018That is what I\u2019m going to do for you: give a strong economic message that we will make sure that the Scottish people, when they get to the ballot box, can see that there is a credible alternative to Labour, to the SNP, and that is us, the Conservative Party.\u2019<\/p>\n

In his main stage speech to the Conservative conference on Sunday, Mr Findlay accused the SNP of turning Scotland into \u2018a laboratory for weird and wacky policies\u2019 with its \u2018woke\u2019 policies.<\/p>\n

He also told a fringe event that the Scottish Tories will be \u2018Scotland\u2019s party of economic opportunity\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kemi Badenoch has accused the SNP and Labour of \u2018running Scotland down\u2019 and warned that Europe\u2019s oil capital…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,92,4884,1198,8414,12,712,10004,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-479283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-kemi-badenoch","12":"tag-labour","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-snp","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115330163520612637","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}