LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer outlined his party’s ambitions to make Britain a clean-energy superpower in Edinburgh today.

Renewing his pledge for no new North Sea oil and gas, Sir Keir outlined an investment plan he says would create half a million jobs, grow the economy and get Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s “boot off our throat with real energy security.”

He set out plans for a new state energy company headquartered in Scotland: GB Energy, which would invest its surpluses in a national wealth fund.  A warm homes plan and a £500m-a-year British jobs bonus scheme offering capital grants to low-carbon industries were also outlined.

He said: “GB Energy will be a shared project owned by all four nations on these islands. So we will set up a governance structure that will protect its long-term future.

“Whoever is in power in Westminster; whoever is in power in Holyrood, this will be the driving force for a new Britain.

“Some nation will become a clean-energy superpower, why not Britain?”

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Mary Church responded: “Public ownership of energy can help deliver the fair and fast transition that workers and communities need.

“The oil industry in the UK grew to a world leader in just a few years through political support: the same must now be achieved with renewable energy.”

Both STUC and TUC general secretaries broadly welcomed the announcements.

STUC’s Roz Foyer said: “While this plan falls short of taking our grid and wider energy system back into democratic control, as it already is in much of Europe, it represents a positive, more interventionist approach.

“We hope this marks the beginning of a genuine effort to put people before the energy profiteers.

“With the Scottish government’s energy strategy under review, we need similar initiatives now to build an energy system that works for people first in Scotland.”

TUC’s Paul Nowak said: “Labour has set out a vision for Great British Energy to be a peer to public companies like France’s EDF and Sweden’s Vattenfall.

“This would give the UK a real publicly owned energy champion, like our European neighbours.

“That’s the best way to decarbonise the UK economy while safeguarding people’s jobs and livelihoods.”

Unite leader Sharon Graham welcomed the fact the guarantee there would be no “cliff edge” for oil and gas, “which will be part of the energy mix until at least 2050,” but said workers needed “real assurances” and more detail.