Household energy bills could be a third cheaper in an independent Scotland, John Swinney has insisted – adding that reduced energy costs could also boost the NHS and the economy.
The First Minister argued that Scotland could be “better off with independence”, adding that leaving the UK would put “Scotland’s energy in Scotland’s hands”.
With five months until Scots go to the polls in the next Holyrood election – in which the SNP is campaigning to win a majority of seats in a bid to force a second independence vote – the party leader spoke out about the “fresh start that only independence offers”.
And he used his speech in Glasgow to warn Sir Keir Starmer that if he fails to act on the tax paid by energy firms, the Prime Minister could follow in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher and become a “second destroyer of industry”.
Mr Swinney said the UK’s oil and gas industry – which is largely based in the north east of Scotland – had been “left high and dry” by the energy profits levy.
The charge, which was imposed by the previous Conservative government at Westminster, and has been continued by the Labour administration, is “sucking the economic life out of one of our country’s most dynamic and important industries”, the First Minister said.
Mr Swinney told how he made clear the “existential nature of the current threat” to the sector when he met Sir Keir last week.
The First Minister stated: “I left him in no doubt that, unless he changes course, what we face is a second wave of 80s-style deindustrialisation, 80s-style economic devastation.”
Mr Swinney added: “Sir Keir Starmer is an even less popular Prime Minister than Liz Truss – and that takes some doing.
“But if he does not change course on the energy profits levy, he will enter our national story as a second Thatcher, a second destroyer of industry, a second destroyer of communities, and Scotland will not forget.”
Mr Swinney spoke out about the impact of the energy profits levy in a speech where he argued that Scotland needs a “different path, a different future”.
Leaving the UK would give the country a “fresh start from the chaos of a Westminster system that is fundamentally broken and beyond repair”, he said, as well as a “fresh start financially, economically”.
He also insisted that “with Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands, our nation, our fellow citizens, can finally see the benefit of our vast energy wealth”.
Echoing a previous SNP slogan on “Scotland’s oil”, with the switch to renewable power Mr Swinney said it was now “Scotland’s energy”.
And he added that leaving the UK would allow Scotland to use its “energy wealth to deliver a true transformation of our society and our economy”.
Mr Swinney said analysis produced for the energy regulator Ofgem had indicated that a “different policy approach would enable Scotland to have the lowest wholesale electricity prices in western Europe”.
And he said that this, together with scrapping “unnecessary costs like the UK’s nuclear levy” could be used to “deliver big benefits here in Scotland”.
The First Minister said that this “includes being able to lower household electricity bills by over one third”.
Mr Swinney said this would be “a big saving for families across Scotland, offering the real hope that cost-of-living pressures will finally begin to ease”.
But he also spoke about how other sectors could benefit.
“Think what that will mean for our NHS,” the First Minister stated.
“Less money spent on energy bills means more money to spend on doctors and nurses, on more operations and appointments.”
He insisted there was “no doubt a policy of low energy costs for Scottish businesses can be as transformational for our country and its prospects as the policy of low corporation tax was for Ireland”.
The First Minister added: “With a commitment to delivering low energy costs as the bedrock of our national economic strategy, we can not only make every Scottish business more competitive than it is today – creating new jobs, better paid jobs, opening up new opportunities for investment, innovation and growth. We can attract new business to our shores.”
However, the Tories accused the First Minister of “pushing his independence obsession at every turn”, insisting that ordinary Scots “just want him to move on”.
Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: “This latest speech just sums up why we must get rid of the SNP at next year’s Holyrood election.
“If we don’t, the nationalists will spend another five years demanding an independence referendum to the further detriment of Scotland’s economy and public services.
“Our NHS is in the grip of a winter crisis, people are struggling with rising bills and Scotland’s education system is a shadow of its former self, but still John Swinney can only focus on his lifelong obsession with breaking up the United Kingdom.”
