'Wall of money' to invest in Scottish nuclear power if Labour win election

The Prime Minister said the UK Labour Government is ready and willing to invest in nuclear power in Scotland if Anas Sarwar wins the Holyrood election in May.

The current SNP Government has consistently been against the creation of new nuclear power stations north of the border, with control of planning laws giving ministers an effective veto.

Keir Starmer said there is a “wall of money” Labour wants to invest in Scottish nuclear power, but he said the SNP are saying no “for ideological reasons”.

“If there’s a Labour Government in Scotland, we’ll be back the day after the election to make sure that money is translated into good, well-paying jobs in renewables and nuclear,” Starmer said.

“That can’t happen at the moment because the SNP is basically saying ‘we’re shut for business’.”

When it comes to the Scottish Budget, he claimed Labour had put “record money” into Scotland at the last UK budget.

“We’ve had 19 years of SNP, and now they’re asking to go into third decade,” Starmer said.

“After 19 years, what do we got? We’ve got a health service where there’s too many people on the waiting list, we’ve got education and public services which are on their knees.

“At the last budget, we put record money into Scotland, and across Scotland I think people are entitled to ask where has the money gone?”

‘One of world’s largest wind farm in Scotland to attracts £3bn’

The Prime Minister visited Scotland less than 24 hours after the UK Government awarded a contract to SSE to build one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms off the coast of East Lothian.

The 20-year contract for the Berwick Bank Wind Farm project on the outer Firth of Forth will include 307 turbines generating enough renewable energy to power over six million homes.

With the potential to deliver up to 4.1 gigawatts, the development would be one of the largest offshore opportunities in the world and could increase Scotland’s overall renewable energy capacity by 25%.

On Thursday, the Prime Minister joined energy secretary Ed Miliband and Scottish secretary Douglas Alexander in East Lothian to announce that work on Berwick Bank is “going to start within the year”.

“What I’m announcing today is that [the Berwick Bank announcement] has led to £3 billion worth of investment,” Starmer told STV News.

Starmer said every £1 of investment from the Government has been matched by £17 from private investment.

“That is 7,000 jobs in that particular initiative, and 2,500 will be in Scotland,” he said.