SNP Government leaders are drifting “too far” from the party policy decided by their members, figures within the SNP have warned.
Trade unionists in the SNP have raised particular alarm about the exclusion of a motion on the “overseas sell-off of Scotland’s natural and industrial resources” from the agenda for the party’s national council, which will meet in Perth on Saturday.
Former SNP MP Chris Stephens said that the motion’s omission meant “questions should be raised about what is happening behind the scenes”.
Bill Ramsay, the convener of the SNP Trade Union Group (the party’s largest affiliate body), said that no issues which had made the national council’s final agenda were as central to independence or the party’s current economic and industrial strategy.
Green energy and infrastructure were listed as the third of First Minister John Swinney’s “four priorities”, which were outlined in a keynote speech in May.
However, Ramsay, who sits on the SNP’s ruling national executive committee (NEC), raised concerns that the party’s “industrial strategy has not come before party conference or national council in any substantial way”.
“We will certainly not be letting this issue pass,” he told The National.
“We are concerned that SNP party policy and the actions of the SNP Scottish Government are starting to drift too far apart. We recognise that compromise happens when you are in government, but this is about fundamental direction.”
He added: “Past clear calls to seek the establishment of a national, asset-based renewable energy company, as well as opposition to freeports, have been ignored.
“The same looks to be happening with the party’s call for land, asset and wealth taxes, which we piloted through conference next year.”
Simon Barrow, the secretary of the SNPTUG, said they would be seeking “far greater engagement with the party leadership and our leaders in parliament over such crucial matters”.
Barrow has also written to SNP national secretary Alex Kerr asking for an explanation as to why the trade unionists’ resolution was not selected for debate at the national council on Saturday.
The motion would have asked the SNP to support equity stakes in renewables projects, public ownership of resources, a national energy company, and just transition support for workers, among other things.
“So far we have had no acknowledgement or reply,” Barrow said.
Ramsay said the situation was “appalling”.
“Our future as a nation requires economic as well as political control over our destiny. We should not be in the business of selling off our renewable energy future without safeguards.”
The SNP TUG said that the £1.5bn private investment which the Scottish Government is looking to leverage “requires essential safeguards”.
Former MP Stephens said: “It is really concerning that this motion on public control of our energy and industrial future has been passed over.
“It needs to come back on the agenda as soon as possible, and questions should be raised about what is happening behind the scenes, and with the Conference Arrangements Committee.”
Roz Foyer, the general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), said that while the national council agenda was “strictly a matter for the internal functions of the SNP, it would be odd, if not a complete disconnect, that the First Minister and Finance Secretary have put their plans for Scotland’s green industrial future as one of their four priorities, yet that same topic is not a matter for discussion”.
She went on: “We have not been shy in telling the Scottish Government about our grave misgivings on their Green Industrial Strategy. If we want to achieve a just transition, with the Finance Secretary recommitting and partly funding such an aim just this week, it cannot be achieved with mere hollow words.
“The state must play a more active role to build up Scotland’s manufacturing and support our energy workers. That means achieving equity stakes within renewable energy projects and guaranteeing the maximum benefit of Scotland’s green future is captured and retained by Scotland’s workers, not corporate interests."
The SNP did not respond to concerns raised.
The full text of the trade union group’s motion reads:
Council recognises that significant expansion and development of sustainable, publicly controlled and community directed renewable energy industries is crucial for Scotland’s self-governing future and for our capacity to tackle climate change rapidly and effectively.
We therefore welcome the recognition in the Scottish Government’s overview of a Green Industrial Strategy (published in September 2024) that an active state is essential for achieving this goal, and propose the following actions to take this commitment forward:
- Prompt attention to achieving equity stakes in renewable energy projects and companies, via the Scottish National Investment Bank preferably, in order to secure as much benefit and resource for Scotland as possible in relation to wind and seabed power sources. In particular, significant off- and on-shore renewable developments such as (but not limited to) the next ScotWind leasing round could see an overhaul of the process, with equity stakes and the use of supply chains as an absolute commitment, and trade union recognition set out as the gold standard for delivering Fair Work.
- Looking to achieve ownership term limits and active break clauses in contracts and operational leases with overseas investors, and/or in developments subsequent to final planning applications, as part of an overall aim to bring as much of Scotland’s natural resources back into public ownership as possible, ultimately through the powers of independence.
- Focusing on investment, building domestic industry and developing local supply chains across transport, energy, construction, manufacturing, and housing – with priority given to meeting climate targets through public-sector led retrofitting and offshore wind (to capture the full potential benefits for workers and communities).
- Reconsidering establishing, and seeking investment in, an asset-based national energy company through municipal collaboration, as a means of driving forward vital public stakeholding in our energy future.
- Investing in training and support schemes for oil and gas workers to help them move into renewables-based jobs, in tandem with a roadmap for Just Transition and an accompanying Jobs Register.
- Further and full engagement with the STUC and its member unions (through an Industrial Strategy Council or similar mechanism) in ensuring that workers and their trade unions are central to decision-making about local, regional and national energy projects, a deliverable Just Transition that protects communities and jobs, and a Green New Deal economic prospectus for Scotland.
SNP Trade Union Group
