John Swinney's former depute Kate Forbes piles pressure on him to back more North Sea drilling

John Swinney ’s former deputy has piled pressure on him to back the Rosebank oil development. Kate Forbes , the former Deputy First Minister, said backing the project, off the Shetland Islands, would be ‘entirely consistent’ with a motion passed last month at SNP conference. Her comments, in a newspaper article supporting the case for Rosebank, come after the First Minister faced widespread ridicule last week for refusing to say seven times if he supported the project or not.

Writing in a column for the Sunday Times, Ms Forbes, who is also a former Finance Secretary and Economy Secretary, highlighted concerns that 18,000 offshore energy jobs could be lost by 2035 if new opportunities fail to keep pace with diminishing oil and gas activity. She said: ‘It is the right decision to approve Rosebank. And doing so is entirely consistent with the motion recently passed at SNP conference, allowing the Scottish government to back Rosebank, for the benefit of Scotland.’

SNP delegates at the party’s conference in Aberdeen last month backed a motion which formally scrapped the ‘presumption against’ new drilling introduced by Nicola Sturgeon and backed domestic production over foreign imports. But the Scottish Government is expected to delay publishing its final energy strategy, which will confirm its approach to new drilling, until later next year. At First Minister’s Questions last week, Mr Swinney was accused of showing a ‘lack of backbone’ on the issue of North Sea drilling by repeatedly refusing to give a straight answer on whether he supports or opposes the Rosebank development.

Kate Forbes has urged First Minister John Swinney to back more North Sea oil drilling Scottish Conservative energy spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘John Swinney’s former deputy Kate Forbes has joined the growing chorus urging him to get off the fence and back Rosebank. ‘He’s not listening to communities in the North East whose livelihoods depend on the North Sea, but perhaps he’ll listen to her. ‘His refusal to give Rosebank his unequivocal backing is jeopardising thousands of jobs and is putting Britain’s energy security at risk.’

The Scottish Government its position on Rosebank was discussed at First Minister’s Questions last week. In her newspaper article, Ms Forbes also criticised the UK Government for proposing loans or equity investment for the Acorn carbon capture development rather than further capital grants, saying the decision was ‘bewildering’. She said: ‘It’s an unedifying mess, reminiscent of the storm debris littering the garden.’ In further criticism of the Budget unveiled by Chancellor John Healey last week, Ms Forbes said: ‘The northeast is littered with storm damage literally and metaphorically.

Communities don’t have the luxury of hunkering down and waiting it out. We’ve learnt to prepare well pile up the firewood, stock up on nonperishable food and fully charge phones. ‘We’ve whittled it down to the core essentials. To throw the analogy back at the chancellor, if households know how to prioritise in the eye of the storm, so can the Treasury. A strong, growing economy, reliable sources of energy and a balanced budget. ‘Households in the northeast do not have the luxury of hunkering down and waiting it out.’

On the BBC’s The Sunday Show yesterday, UK Energy Minister Martin McCluskey said money already drawn down by the Acorn developer remains in place but future funding will be through loans and equities which ‘are better value for the taxpayer’. He said: ‘We are making sure there is support there for the Acorn project. We want that project to succeed and the developers, who I’m speaking to later this week, will come forward with proposals and that funding is on the table.’