CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves said the UK government is “backing Scotland” with billions of pounds of investment in energy and war as she visited the country today.

She made the remarks ahead of visits to RAF Lossiemoth in Moray and the controversial St Fergus gas plant in Aberdeenshire, where plans for a new generation were last year branded “climate-wrecking” by Friends of the Earth Scotland.

Despite calls from one-time ministerial colleague Anneliese Dodds to use a wealth tax to fill a £20 billion black hole in public finances, Ms Reeves has chosen to slash welfare spending and the decimation of overseas aid budget to finance a 2.6 per cent (£11bn) binge on war spending she hopes will add 26,100 jobs to the Scottish economy, and boost GDP by a whopping 0.3 per cent.

Ms Reeves said: “We’re seizing the huge potential and opportunities that Scotland has on offer.

“Whether it’s in defence to keep the UK safe, or clean energy to power all corners of the country, this government is backing Scotland with billions of pounds of investment to grow the economy and create jobs.”

The Chancellor was also keen to point to the UK government’s £200m investment in Aberdeenshire’s Acorn carbon capture project, claimed to create 15,000 jobs and safeguard 18,000 more.

Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce chief executive Russell Borthwick called for Ms Reeves to slash taxes on oil and gas companies.

He said: “There’s no need to start from scratch or build out a nascent industry.

“Simply by removing the confiscatory EPL [windfall tax], letting investment flow into projects and stimulating activity in a sector, which has been hammered by policy for too long, we can unlock significant growth in the UK economy.”

Echoing those sentiments, and accusing Labour of having “an ideological desire to sink the North Sea,” SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn added: “The very same Labour Party are happily flying in behind new airports for London and have been all too keen to write blank cheques for a steel plant in Scunthorpe, a nuclear power station at Sizewell and an oil refinery in Lincolnshire. 

“The challenge for Rachel Reeves today is simple — end a fiscal regime that is destroying Scottish jobs and finally tell us how her government intends to deliver on that pre-election promise to lower energy bills by £300.”