Approximately 80 miles northeast of the Shetland Islands, on the Scottish coast, sits the controversial unexplored oil field – Rosebank. Over the past three years, Rosebank and Jackdaw (a twin oil field which sits 150 miles northeast of Aberdeen) have been at the epicentre of an ongoing debate over the direction of UK energy. Specifically, is it right to drill down and retrieve new fossil fuels in full knowledge of their impact on global temperatures? And, considering the economic damage caused by the UK’s ongoing reliance on imported natural gas, if fossil fuels are to stay in use until a renewable future has been fully realised, does it make more sense to rely on resources closer to home?
According to the leader of Scottish Labour, Anas Sarwar, the UK should heed the logic intrinsic to the second question. “Energy security is national security,” he told me when we met on a Tuesday afternoon at London’s County Hall. “To put it bluntly, if the choice is more expensive imports from despotic regimes like Russia or new oil and gas, I think the answer has to be new oil and gas.”
To him – allowing drilling at Jackdaw and Rosebank – will set the UK on a course of energy and economic independence. In light of the Trump administration and developments on Europe’s Eastern frontier, this is a keystone in Labour’s new commitment to shoring up Britain’s defence capacity. “I wholeheartedly support the prime minister and the UK Labour party in prioritising national security,” he said, “what I would emphasise though is national security is more than just defence. National security is also energy security.”
The decision over the two fields’ exploration is currently stuck in Ed Miliband’s in-tray. Though approval was given to both fields under the last Conservative government in 2022, a High Court case brought by the environmental groups Uplift and Greenpeace last year, found it was granted unlawfully due to a lack of consideration of the downstream emissions that drilling will produce. Rosebank has been the subject of Just Stop Oil protests and is abhorred by climate apparatchiks like Caroline Lucas, Chris Packham and Dale Vince.
Scottish Labour should expect vocal opposition to drilling these fields. The government’s current position on oil and gas is that the UK should offer no new licences. In private, however, both Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves are said to be quietly supportive of new drilling at Rosebank (Miliband, on the other hand, is not).
Sarwar’s support is neither quiet nor private. “We made the commitment during the election that we would support all existing oil and gas licences,” he told me, “these are clearly two licences that were the subject of court action, and we now have a grey area. They were granted permissions pre-election which I think stands with the policy before.”
Despite rumours of private support, no one in government has explicitly come out in favour of Jackdaw and Rosebank. And so, Sarwar has created some distance between Scottish Labour and the UK Labour party. “I’ve been really clear since I took this job four years ago, I’m not going to turn my back on a single Scot,” Sarwar told me, “what I care about is pulling ideas across Scotland together to deliver better outcomes for people in Scotland.”
In the three years since he was elected leader of Scottish Labour, the 42-year-old MSP for Glasgow Central has enjoyed the political cushion of a Conservative government in Westminster. But next year’s Holyrood elections are fast approaching, and though the party made big gains in Scotland last year – improving their vote share by 17 points and snatching 36 seats back from the SNP – they are still predicted to come second to the incumbent party, due to a recent surge in support for Reform and the Scottish Greens.
Sarwar intends to be first minister in thirteen months’ time. But it’s possible that an increasingly unpopular Labour government in Westminster may harm his chances: “It’s interesting because I often get asked that question,” he said, “and first of all, there’s no route to a Scottish Labour government that doesn’t involve getting rid of the Tories.” He explained that the previous SNP-Tory face-off meant the dominance of constitutional issues in Scottish politics – in other words, independence – consumed everything.
Now, with Labour’s artificial ambiguity on Scottish independence, the focus north of the border is the bread and butter questions of politics: cost of living, the state of the health service, childcare. There is now space to scrutinise the SNP’s 18-year legacy: “As frustrated as anybody might be about the delivery of a UK government after less than two years, I don’t think that negates the legacy and record of a government that has almost been in power for [nearly] 20 years,” he said. Sarwar’s optimism is apparent. But voters don’t always see the bigger picture and thirteen months is a long time for things to go awry. The keys to Bute House are still there for the taking.
[See more: The Chancellor has taken another big gamble]
Topics in this article : Anas Sarwar, Energy, Oil and gas, Scottish Labour