Anas Sarwar condemns Scottish Government's nuclear stance as 'short-sighted' and 'unambitious'
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The Scottish Government's attitude towards nuclear power has been condemned as "short-sighted" and "unambitious" by Anas Sarwar during a visit to Wick.
Labour's Scottish leader insisted nuclear energy had to be seen as part of the mix and said his party is supportive of it.
He was speaking while visiting the Beatrice offshore wind farm operations and maintenance base at Wick with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
Scottish Government policy is to oppose new nuclear stations under current technologies.
Caithness has a long track record of nuclear industry expertise through the operation of the Dounreay site, which is undergoing decommissioning.
Mr Sarwar said: “It is UK Labour's position to support nuclear but it is also Scottish Labour's position to support nuclear. It has to be part of that mix to give us a stable baseline that we can build upon with renewable energy.
“The debate in Scotland has become so polarised on this. You've got a Scottish Government who are really intransigent on it in terms of having no nuclear base at all here in Scotland.
"I think that's a mistake, I think it's wrong, I think it's short-sighted, I think it's unambitious, but it's still an argument we need to win here in Scotland.
“In the context of the Ukraine conflict, I think public opinion has actually hardened in terms of support for nuclear being part of the mix. The Scottish Government has been completely difficult on this and that's something we want to change.”
Mr Sarwar and Sir Keir were joined by Ed Miliband, shadow secretary of state for climate change and net-zero at Westminster, and Colin Smyth, the Scottish Labour energy spokesperson, on Friday's visit.
After touring the Beatrice base at Wick harbour, they went out on a crew transfer vessel to see the 84-turbine wind farm off the east coast of Caithness.
At a time when the SNP has been going through the process of choosing a new leader and First Minister following Nicola Sturgeon's decision to stand down, Mr Sarwar acknowledged that Labour had "a lot of work to do" in order to win back voters.
Kate Forbes, Ash Regan and Humza Yousaf are the SNP leadership contenders, with the result due on Monday.
Mr Sarwar said: “Undoubtedly the SNP is imploding as a party, talking to itself about itself. Its record is under more scrutiny than it has ever been.
"I think even the harshest critic of Nicola Sturgeon would accept that the three candidates are nowhere near in the same league as her in terms of her ability as a politician.
“But for Labour we've got to do it with humility. There isn't a short cut, it's not that the wheels fall off the SNP bus and people will automatically come and support us.
“We've got to get out there, do the hard work, earn people's trust, earn their respect, earn their vote and demonstrate what that change looks like. That's part of what this visit is about today – how we put Scotland at the centre of growing the UK's economy and that mission of clean energy."
The far north hasn't had a Labour MP since Robert Maclennan defected more than 40 years ago to become a founder member of the Social Democrat Party.
“Two years ago we were at 16 per cent, last year 21 per cent, this year 32 per cent," Mr Sarwar said. "I'm not making predictions that we're going to win this constituency – we've got a lot of work to do.
"But there's no part of Scotland we don't want to try and reach, or people we don't want to try and persuade."
Earlier this week, Roger Saxon – a former Labour councillor and chairman of Dounreay Stakeholder Group – spoke of his concerns over the rate of progress on the site decommissioning programme, saying the current deadline of 2033 is unrealistic.
Site licence company Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd said a new long-range decommissioning plan was under review.
