Kate Forbes: Rachel Reeves must scrap and replace the windfall tax
The deputy first minister has argued the economic and industrial case for Scottish independence when she spoke to the party faithful at SNP conference.
Kate Forbes has called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to scrap and replace the windfall tax on oil and gas at the next budget.
The deputy first minister made the comments as she took to the stage on the final day of the SNP conference in Aberdeen, where she set out the industrial case for independence and attacked the Labour Party’s vision for Scotland.
She also reiterated the nationalists’ opposition to nuclear energy, declaring that Scotland “will not be the UK’s nuclear playground”,
Ms Reeves will lay out the UK government’s tax and spending plans next month, but the energy profits levy – which levels a tax on the profits of oil and gas firms – is due to continue to 2030.
But speaking at the SNP conference for the final time as an MSP, Ms Forbes urged the Chancellor to end the levy – increased last year to 38 per cent – early.
“Labour have followed the decades-old pattern of exploiting Scotland’s energy revenues by extending and increasing the Tory energy profits levy, making hundreds of workers redundant and creating an unjust transition,” she said.
“In a classic move by this Labour Government, they accept the 78 per cent tax rate is costing jobs, but they won’t do anything about it for five years.
“So, we call on the Chancellor today, don’t wait, replace this destructive fiscal regime at the next Budget with a fair one that protects workers and enables the energy transition.”
The deputy first minister also used part of her speech to discuss the nationalists’ opposition to nuclear energy.
Ms Forbes said: “We are leading the world in the innovation, technology and commercialisation of renewable energy. That is why it is so bewildering that the UK government would rather focus on the distraction of new nuclear, rather than on Scotland’s renewable potential.
“It will take longer, it will be more expensive, it will increase bills, and it will leave our communities to deal with dangerous nuclear waste. Let us be clear with the Labour government today - Scotland will not be the UK’s nuclear playground.”
Much of Ms Forbes’s speech focused on setting out the opposing views of the SNP and Scottish Labour, as the party gears up to fight for an unprecedented fifth term in office at the 2026 Scottish Parliament election.
She highlighted 2023 statistics, which show GDP per head in the Scottish capital is higher than London. Similarly, GDP per head in Greater Glasgow is higher than it is in Greater Manchester.
The deputy first minister said: “Labour’s ambition for Scotland is to be more like England, for our national parliament at Holyrood to mirror Westminster, for Edinburgh to emulate London, and Glasgow to replicate Manchester.
“They claim that is what would deliver economic success. Well conference, let me just clarify that point.
“The latest ONS statistics say that GDP per head in Edinburgh is higher than in London and GDP in Greater Glasgow is higher than in Greater Manchester.
“I hate to break it to Labour, but trying to be more like England would actually make Scotland poorer.”
The SNP is leading the Holyrood polls and has been projected to win 43 more seats than Scottish Labour. This is despite the SNP and Scottish Labour being almost neck-and-neck in the polls a year ago.
This is Ms Forbes’s final conference speech as an MSP as she is planning to stand down from frontline politics at next year’s election. During her time in Holyrood, she has held some of the highest offices in government, including finance secretary and economy secretary.
She concluded her speech by thanking SNP activists, adding it had been an “enormous privilege” to represent her Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch seat.
“The landscapes are breathtaking and the people are resilient,” she said. “It has been my privilege, a privilege beyond, to serve these communities on behalf of the SNP.”
Her speech mainly focused on reviewing the SNP’s economic policy from recent years and painting a positive picture of the economic case for independence.
This comes less than a week after her boss, First Minister John Swinney, published a new independence paper that argued for the economic case for leaving the UK.
Much of her speech also focused on criticising the UK Labour government in Westminster, particularly on industrial and economic strategy.
She highlighted the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery, and boasted of her own work to save jobs at the Alexander Dennis bus manufacturing sites in Falkirk and Larbert.
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