ALBA Slam “King's Ransom Cost Of Staying in the UK”

Reacting to the King’s Speech, Alba Party Westminster leader Neale Hanvey MP, has said that “Scots are now expected to pay a King’s Ransom as the cost of staying part of the UK.”

Mr Hanvey hit out at the King’s Speech saying that it is “more of the same, with Scotland’s North Sea revenues paying the way whilst Scots struggle to pay their heating bills.”

In a statement, Neale Hanvey MP said:

“Outright opposition to new development in the North Sea is daft. But the King’s Ransom that Scots are asked to pay to stay part of the UK is obscene. This is more of the same, with Scotland’s North Sea revenues paying the way whilst Scot’s struggle to pay their heating bills.

“Today’s King’s Speech was completely tone-deaf to the fact that tens of thousands of millions of pounds are flowing to the UK treasury from Scotland whilst across our land of energy plenty we have Scots living in fuel poverty.

“With independence, we would be able to ensure oil and gas field licences are only granted when they have imposed on them a net zero carbon condition. That is how we can ensure that oil companies are forced to invest in carbon capture in the Scottish sector of the North Sea.

“Free from the UK Government dragging its heels on carbon capture investment, an independent Scotland can accelerate carbon capture development which is the one way that we could make a real difference in reducing not just Scotland’s, but Europe’s carbon footprint.

“Sadly, the Tories and Labour trade while economic and environmental opportunity is allowed to pass us by.

“In the Scottish Independence referendum, Better Together told voters in Scotland that there was no oil and gas left in waters around Scotland. Now, but nine years later, the King’s Speech has announced a raft of spending plans funded by Scotland’s natural resource bounty. No one in Scotland should forgive or forget the blatant hypocrisy and lies of the Better Together coalition.”