Anas Sarwar has accused Nicola Sturgeon of having a “brass neck” after he raised human rights concerns over £700m of renewable energy contracts.
The Scottish Labour leader contrasted SNP ’s attacks on the Tories in this area with what he said was the questionable track record of some of the firms profiting from the seabed.
Sturgeon hit back by accusing Sarwar of being negative and having a “girn”.
The deals awarded this week, which came to £699.2m, were for seventeen projects for new offshore wind farms along Scotland’s coasts.
Crown Estate Scotland oversaw the ScotWind Leasing bidding process, which received 74 applications from energy firms.
At Holyrood, Sarwar honed in on the track record of some of the successful firms: “This SNP government have sold on the cheap the right to profit from Scotland's energy transition to multinational companies with questionable human rights records.”
He asked: “Surely these aren't people the Scottish government should be doing business with?”
Sturgeon responded: “Scotland made the decisions on the companies, the consortiums, that would be awarded the status to develop projects around our coast.
“They have appropriate processes in place to do due diligence, but this is one of the most exciting things for Scotland in a long, long time, which probably is why Scottish Labour is being so negative about it.”
Sarwar hit back: “I agree with the opportunity, but values matter. Just last week, the SNP were right to accuse the Tory government of tolerating human rights abuses as a price worth paying to secure deals for the UK.
“This week the SNP has done the same. So what Nicola Sturgeon in effect is saying 'it's bad when the Tories do it, but it's okay when the SNP do it'.”
He accused Sturgeon of having a “brass neck” and separately raised concerns about Sweden’s state-owned energy firm winning from the contracts process:
“That state-owned Swedish energy company can now use their part of the Scottish seabed to keep energy bills down for people in Sweden.
“Why is it the people of Sweden now own a bigger stake in Scottish energy supply and distribution than the Scottish people?”
Sturgeon said: “This is a thoroughly positive opportunity for Scotland and no wonder then that Scottish Labour just wants to girn about it and be negative. That's what characterised Scottish Labour for a long time."
She also raised yesterday's defection of an MP from the Tories to Labour: “I'm just sitting here reflecting, almost unbelievably actually, that Anas Sarwar has just accused me of behaving like a Tory the day after his party threw open the doors to a Tory MP."
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here.
