SCOTTISH Labour leader Anas Sarwar has defended the UK Government’s decision to base the chair of GB Energy in England – despite more than a year of pledges that the company would be headquartered in Scotland.
On Sunday, news broke that the chair of GB Energy Juergen Maier – the former Siemens boss who was appointed to the role in July – would be based in Salford in Greater Manchester.
It came despite Prime Minister Keir Starmer promising first in June 2023 – and then repeatedly during the General Election campaign – that Labour would “base GB Energy right here in Scotland”.
That pledge has also been repeated by Sarwar, who on Monday defended having a GB Energy boss who lives “in another part of the country”.
Speaking to LBC, the Scottish Labour MSP said: “Everyone welcomed Juergen Maier being appointed as the chair of GB Energy.
“Juergen Maier, who I know has already had very positive conversations with the Scottish Government, has already had very positive conversations with the Department for Energy, and clean energy here in Scotland too, someone that the government, John Swinney himself was saying he's had very positive conversations with around the shape that GB Energy is taking.
“So that's the chair of GB energy who was appointed who lives in another part of the country."
Sarwar went on: “But what we have still to do is open the headquarters, which we have committed in Aberdeen, and the staff will be working from Aberdeen to deliver the outcomes from GB Energy.
“So if we are saying we don't want to welcome talents, then I think that's a very dangerous place for us to be.”
He added: “Juergen Maier was welcomed by everyone right across the political spectrum as someone that has a pedigree and knowledge and an ability. Why would we want to shut that off from the opportunities we have here in Scotland.”
Alba MSP Ash Regan said: “What message of commitment does it send to Scotland that absentee GB Energy chair Juergen Maier will be managing Aberdeen-based GB Energy from his home in Manchester?
“Scotland has not forgotten Labour’s 2009 sell-off of British Energy – and will not be reassured by cheap soundbites, shiny HQ nameplates or the chair’s occasional visits north.”
Scottish Conservative energy spokesperson Douglas Lumsden called it “an insult to the north-east that the chair of GB Energy will be based hundreds of miles away”.
And the SNP’s energy spokesperson at Westminster, Dave Doogan MP, said: “To be completely plain about it, this sums UK energy policy up – command and miscontrol of Scotland's resources from hundreds of miles away.”
