Just 13 jobs have been confirmed in Aberdeen under Labour’s flagship GB Energy project, despite earlier promises of over 1,000 roles.
The figure was revealed on the BBC’s Sunday Show, where UK Energy Minister Michael Shanks was unable to confirm how many staff were currently employed in Aberdeen.
The SNP has accused Labour of betraying the North East after repeated commitments that GB Energy would be headquartered in Aberdeen and deliver thousands of jobs.
New figures published by The National show only 69 people are currently employed by GB Energy, with just 13 of them, around 18% based in Aberdeen.
London employs the largest share, with 31 GB Energy staff, 45% located in the capital.
That’s higher than the 42% of workers spread across the rest of Scotland.
At last year’s Labour conference, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar hailed the company as a publicly owned force for good that would create “thousands of jobs” as Scotland led the world in clean energy.
But SNP MSP Kevin Stewart said the figures reveal a “broken promise laid bare.”
He said:
“One year on from their much-paraded Aberdeen GB Energy HQ announcement, there are just 13 Aberdeen-based roles.”
“Labour’s broken promises on GB Energy have been laid bare by the Minister this morning, confirming the Westminster government cares as much about creating energy jobs in Aberdeen as it does about bringing people’s bills down.”
He also criticised the UK government’s recent handling of job losses at the Grangemouth refinery, where workers were handed redundancy notices last week.
“The same Labour government stood by as Grangemouth workers were given redundancy notices, while diverting funds to save refineries and steelworks in England,” said Stewart.
“For too long, Westminster has treated Scotland’s energy wealth as a cash cow, not an asset to be protected for a clean, sustainable future.”
He added that Scotland deserves a “fresh start” with independence rather than “continued Westminster incompetence” on energy.
