BILLIONAIRE Donald Trump’s call on the British government to ditch the “unsightly windmills and incentivise modernised drilling in the North Sea” has been dismissed by SNP and Green leaders.

In an apparent call for the Labour government to abandon its pledge to ban new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, the US president said on social media on Friday: “A century of drilling left, with Aberdeen as the hub. The old-fashioned tax system disincentivises drilling, rather than the opposite. UK’s energy costs would go way down, and fast.”

Responding, Scottish First Minister John Swinney said the comments came as no surprise.

The SNP leader, whose own policy is to consider new licences on a case-by-case basis, said: “I think we’re all quite familiar with his line of argument. But from the Scottish government’s point of view, we’ve given a commitment to get to net zero and we’re going to see that commitment through.”

Repeating his commitment to reaching net zero by 2045 despite a year which has seen his administration miss or abandon a slew of interim targets, he added: “The need to take climate action is absolutely central to what all governments have got to do, and the Scottish government is absolutely committed to that journey.”

Arguing that breaking the “artificial link” between gas and electricity prices was the key to bringing down bills, Scottish Greens co-leader and net-zero spokesman Patrick Harvie said: “Scotland’s renewable industry is generating cheap, clean, abundant power, but households are not getting the benefit in the bills they pay.

“Donald Trump’s dangerous ideas must be ignored. There’s no surprise that a corrupt billionaire politician is putting the profits of fossil-fuel multinationals ahead of the common good.

“We must stick to our net-zero targets. We cannot backtrack any further or pander to a climate-change denier like Trump, who ignores the extreme harm the fossil-fuel industry has caused.

“This Labour government has already shown they will make decisions that harm people; cutting winter fuel payment for pensioners and making disabled people struggle financially. I urge them to do the right thing and ignore the calls of billionaires like Trump.”

The Department for Energy & Net Zero declined to comment.