JOHN Swinney lambasted the “the broken promises” made by the Tories and Labour in the Better Together campaign when he stood in for Nicola Sturgeon First Minister’s Questions yesterday.
In a stormy session, the Deputy First Minister hit back at Ruth Davidson and Kezia Dugdale who seized on new oil and gas figures to try and undermine the case for independence — on the day a poll said 50 per cent of Scottish voters now backed the move.
Responding to claims by Davidson that Andrew Wilson, chairman of the SNP’s growth commission, suggested earlier this week that the Yes case should not have made oil revenues central to the economic arguments in 2014 , Swinney said North Sea oil had “propped up” the UK economy for many years and considered it a “bonus” to Scotland.
He turned the heat on the Scottish Tory leader reminding her of the unfulfilled pledges made to Scotland by ex Prime Minister David Cameron in the run-up to the vote in September 2014.
“I have already explained to Ruth Davidson the importance of oil to the UK economy and the huge bonus that it has been to the UK over these 40 years,” he said.
“When the Prime Minister was in Scotland in 2014, he said that there would be a massive oil bonus for Scotland if we voted No. Other promises were made to Scotland about what would happen if we voted No — on the same day that the Prime Minister suggested that there would be a £200 billion oil bonus, he said to people in the north-east of Scotland that, if they voted No, there would be a £1 billion carbon capture project for Peterhead.
“That project has been cancelled. Then, of course, there was the other almighty commitment of the No campaign — vote No to stay in the European Union. Oil, carbon capture and the EU — the No campaign was shattered by those broken promises.”
Despite the poll result showing increased support for independence Davidson went on to insist “most people in Scotland” don’t want a second referendum, to which Swinney, citing the 50 per cent figure, replied: “We should not be at all surprised by those numbers, as that is the people of Scotland being exposed to the hard-right politics of the Tory party, seeing the mess that it is getting us into about Europe and deciding that it is time for this country to choose its own future.”
After Davidson sat down it was Dugdale’s turn to press Swinney, and likewise she opted for the oil issue.
“Before the independence referendum, John Swinney said: “the early years of an independent Scotland are timed to coincide with a massive North Sea oil boom,” she said. “However, yesterday, the Office for Budget Responsibility confirmed that North Sea oil and gas actually cost the Treasury money last year. Can the Deputy First Minister tell us why the Scottish National Party did not tell the people of Scotland the truth about oil?”
To loud applause from the SNP benches Swinney responded: “Is it not revealing that at the first available opportunity Labour and the Tories have come together again? It is like they have never had a moment apart.”
Signalling to the Tories, he added: “I would have thought that, after the calamity that Kezia Dugdale led the Labour Party into in the 2016 election, she might have learned to have nothing to do with that lot over there.”
And he continued: “If we are to pass accusations about guilt around the chamber, the Labour Party has to think long and hard about how it has enabled the Tory party to govern the United Kingdom because of the Labour Party’s awful stance in the 2014 referendum, which ushered in a Tory Government that is taking us out of the European Union, punishing vulnerable people in our society and damaging people’s life chances.
“The Tory budget yesterday has been assessed by the Resolution Foundation as consigning people in this country to the lowest level of wage growth in more than 200 years. That is what the Labour Party is guilty of ushering in by its stance in the referendum.”
The debate over oil surfaced after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) on Wednesday projected offshore receipts of about £4.6 billion between 2017/18 and 2021/22, down from £7.3 billion in its November forecast. But the Scottish Government had predicted North Sea oil revenues of up to £7.9 billion in 2016/17 and of up to £11.8 billion in 2017/18 before the referendum.
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