Energy Profits Levy: North-east Scotland

Nusrat Ghani Excerpts

Tuesday 14th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Mr Shannon on the north-east of Scotland.

[Jim Shannon]

Madam Deputy Speaker, I spoke to the hon. Lady beforehand to ensure that I was here to support her in what she is trying to achieve in north-east Scotland. It is very important that we add our support to her.

Does the hon. Lady agree that while investment in tidal energy has not produced the desired result of sustainable, reliable energy, the levy on energy profits has achieved a result that is absolutely undesirable and is seeing investment in our countries being moved to the USA and other regions with a more favourable approach? Does she also agree that the economic black hole cannot be filled by more levies but must be filled by investment in our businesses and creating future job security? I commend her.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Bowie (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (Con)]

I commend my hon. Friend on her speech and on securing the debate. As she knows, this issue is also felt incredibly keenly in the neighbouring constituency of West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, which I represent. While the debate about whether it is renewables or oil and gas is a false one, the fact is that skilled workers, whose jobs are being lost in the North sea right now, are the exact workers who we will need in the future to deliver cleaner energy and a more sustainable future. Those jobs do not exist in the UK right now, and they are being lost to the United Arab Emirates, Riyadh, Australia, Mexico and Canada. We need to do what we can to maintain those jobs in north-east Scotland by supporting our oil and gas industry and removing the punitive energy profits levy, which is driving people away from the country and driving companies to make redundancies.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. I remind Mr Bowie that Front Benchers do not intervene from the Front Bench in Adjournment debates.

[Harriet Cross]

I agree that we want to keep the workers that we have, and the skills and expertise that they have developed, in north-east Scotland because they are of huge value to north-east Scotland. They will not stay in north-east Scotland out of virtue but only if the jobs are there for them and it makes economic sense for the companies to keep them there. That is not what is happening at the moment, and we are losing a crucial asset to our energy transition at an extraordinary rate.