DELEGATES to Scottish Labour’s business conference in Glasgow were assured today that the next Labour government will make Scotland the “clean energy capital” of Britain.

The claim was made by shadow net zero secretary Ed Miliband as he discussed the party’s green prosperity plan alongside his Holyrood counterpart, Sarah Boyack.

Labour had already announced it would headquarter its proposed publicly owned energy company, GB Energy, in Scotland. But it has now bolstered that plan with a funding pledge of £8.3 billion over the lifetime of the next parliament to invest in initiatives such as floating offshore wind, hydrogen, as well as controversial carbon capture and storage facilities.

Ms Boyack told the conference: “Labour’s green prosperity plan is nothing short of a transformation that will deliver a publicly owned energy company here in Scotland, deliver 50,000 jobs and slash people’s bills.

“Labour will unlock the potential that Scotland has to put our country in the vanguard of the global transition to green energy.”

Mr Miliband added: “GB Energy will make Scotland the energy capital of the UK and the UK the energy capital of Europe.

“That means good jobs, lower bills, energy security and climate action for the people of Scotland.

“Seven years ago the SNP promised a publicly owned energy company for Scotland. They have failed to deliver.

“If the people of Scotland help elect a Labour government, we will deliver GB Energy here in Scotland. 

“A Labour government will invest across Scotland from floating offshore wind to tidal energy to carbon capture and we will support community energy across every local area in Scotland.” 

Green New Deal UK Scotland campaigner Calum Hodgson welcomed the announcement, but just days after Labour ditched its £28bn green investment plans, he sounded a note of caution.

He told the Star: “Scotland needs real investment in the just transition in order to create hundreds of thousands of well-paid green jobs. But we also need confidence that these will actually be delivered.

“We don't yet know if this is a pledge similar to the £28bn, or the scrapping of tuition fees, or the nationalisation of rail, mail, and water.

“GB Energy is a step in the right direction. But Labour needs to be bolder on climate.

“It’s time the big six energy companies were nationalised, bills capped, jobs protected, and the transition to renewables delivered.

“Scotland needs real change.”