Around 42,000 North Sea jobs ‘risk being wiped out’ under Labour plans for an oil and gas windfall tax

AROUND 42,000 North Sea jobs danger being wiped out under Labour plans for an oil and gas windfall tax, business chiefs warned tonight.

Sir Keir Starmer’s social gathering confronted a backlash as he closed Scottish Labour’s convention by bigging up his imaginative and prescient for a transition to wash power.

But the deliberate earnings levy has sparked disaster talks within the sector.

Offshore Energies UK chief govt David Whitehouse mentioned: “If we are able to’t get firms to speculate right here, there are not any jobs.

“It’s that straightforward.”

It comes days after lots of of companies wrote to the social gathering urging them to ditch the coverage.

It is feared 42,000 jobs and £26billion of financial worth could possibly be misplaced under the plans.

Labour needs to finish a present tax break the place corporations can lower how a lot they pay in the event that they reinvest earnings.

While circuitously addressing the criticism in his convention speech in Glasgow, UK chief Sir Keir Starmer set out his imaginative and prescient for Scotland’s transfer away from oil and gas.

He added it was a transition we “have to make”.

But Mr Whitehouse mentioned: “I’m already hearing from our supply chain and producers that these proposals would deliver a hammer blow.”

Industry chiefs are additionally fearful about Labour’s vow to ban new fossil gasoline drilling licenses.

Tory MSP Craig Hoy mentioned: “Labour’s vow to switch off the taps in the North Sea immediately along with their windfall tax would devastate energy firms, their employees and the North East economy.”