Leader of the Conservative Party Kemi Badenoch MP will today (Friday) call for the Energy Profits Levy to be scrapped and new oil and gas licences to be granted by the UK Government.
In a keynote speech at the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party conference in Edinburgh, she will say the EPL, which Labour have extended and increased, is killing the North Sea oil and gas industry.
In her speech Kemi Badenoch is expected to say: “Renewing our Party and our country means standing up for our oil and gas industry.
“When the Oil and Gas Windfall Tax, the Energy Profits Levy, was brought in, the oil price was near a historic high, at the exact time as energy bills for the British people were sky rocketing.
“But there is no longer a windfall to tax. It has long gone. And the longer this regressive tax on one of our most successful industries remains, the more damaging it becomes.
“Labour have extended and increased this tax. They are killing this industry.
“And frankly if it is allowed to remain in place until 2030, as is Labour’s current plan, there will be no industry left to tax.
“Thousands will have been made unemployed and all while we import more gas from overseas – from the very same basin in which we are banned from drilling.
“So today I say enough. Labour must remove the energy profits levy. Labour must speed up the process of replacing it with a system that rewards success and incentivises investment.
“Because we shouldn’t have this energy profits levy at all.
“We must scrap the ban on new licences.
“We must overturn the ban on supporting oil and gas technology exports.
“And we must champion our own industry.
“We must let this great British, great Scottish, industry thrive, grow and create jobs – ensuring our energy security for generations to come, driving growth and making this country richer in the process.
“Scotland at the heart of our energy future for the next generation as it has for the last.
“For decades, Aberdeen and the North East has been the energy capital. Not just of the UK, but of Europe. It's often said that wherever in the world you find oil and gas, you find an Aberdonian.
“The reason: because they are the product of a world leading centre of excellence that has grown up around Aberdeen, the supply chain, the research, the innovation that supports our and the global offshore industry.
“That is what we must protect. That is what we must champion. That is what we must grow.”