ANAS Sarwar was left squirming as he was grilled on when household bills would come down as a result of GB Energy.
It comes as Labour continue to face criticism for cutting the universal Winter Fuel Payment – a move the Scottish Government said it had “no choice” but to replicate.
Previous reports have suggested GB Energy will be headquartered in Aberdeen with Starmer having already said it would be “an investment vehicle, not an energy company”.
However, he also previously said it would help to “create good jobs and cut people’s bills”.
Grilled on when an official announcement would be made on the location, Sarwar (before) said he thought this would be “imminent” but he wouldn’t make an announcement on behalf of the Prime Minister.
Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland show, the Scottish Labour leader said: “Look we have got to move quickly.
“We don’t have time to waste in the race for net zero, we don’t have time to waste to bring people’s bills down and that’s why we got straight to work with a record number of rewarding around the next stage of projects.
“We want GB Energy up and running…”
At this point, host Gary Robertson interjected to again ask Sarwar on when bills would come down as a result of the company.
Sarwar replied: “Well, I’m hoping that we can get bills down as soon as possible…”
The host once again asked about timings and whether this meant bills would come down in “one year, two years or five years”.
The Scottish Labour leader said: “Gary I think it’s important to stress that it’s not a case of GB Energy is opened and investment is made in a project and that means straight away, the day after bills come down.
“I think people understand that to build a wind farm, previously it has taken 10 years to build a wind farm, we have to go much faster than that.”
Sarwar did however agree with Robertson that it was not “unreasonable” for people to ask when bills would come down given the party have promised this would happen.
“Yes, we want bills to come down but bills will come down partly with GB Energy, making investments in the longer term, it will come down partly from the investments that come from the National Investment Fund but bills will crucially come down from the upgrading in the grid, we’ve got to upgrade the grid,” Sarwar said.
“We’ve got to upgrade the grid in the next six years the equivalent of what we’ve done in the last 50 years as well as driving down inflation and driving down costs.
“That’s what’s going to bring down energy bills, it’s what’s going to bring down wider fuel bills, it’s what’s going to bring down food bills.”
He added that Labour have “inherited chaos” but that the party is determined to “deliver for the people of Scotland”.
It was announced in August that the average household energy bill is to increase by £149 per month from October after Ofgem said it was increasing its price cap.
