POWERS over immigration and North Sea oil and gas are best made at Westminster despite Scots supporting them being devolved to Holyrood, Scottish Labour’s leader has said.
On Monday, polling from Ipsos found that 58% of Scottish voters think power over North Sea licensing should sit at Holyrood, while just 33% said the decision should sit with the UK Government in London.
Further, a plurality of Scots (48% to 41%) said that immigration policy should be controlled by the Scottish Government, not the UK Home Office.
Asked if he supported the devolution of these powers, Scottish Labour leader Michael Marra said: “No.”
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He went on: “I think that we have one of the strongest devolved parliaments in the world. We have huge responsibilities in the parliament that we need to get on with delivering.
“These questions are ones that are taken across the UK for good reason. They're about actually strategic issues about how we meet our energy demands. They're about how we make sure that we have a proper immigration and balance policy across the UK.
“I think it's fine where it is.”
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he wants to work with the Scottish Government on devolution, and First Minister John Swinney has said he will “work constructively and collaboratively with him to devolve more powers from Westminster to Scotland”.
However, Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander has suggested that Labour’s devolution plans do not “involve the transfer of power from one parliament to another”, but are instead about pushing the SNP to devolve power that sits at Holyrood down to cities and regions.
Elsewhere, Marra did not give a clear response when asked if he supported Labour’s legislation at Westminster that would outlaw completely new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.
He said: “I have made very clear that I believe that both Jackdaw and Rosebank should go ahead.
“There's going to be significant economic benefit and significant fiscal benefit for the whole of the UK, but the [2024 Labour General Election manifesto] is consistent with the policy that was published last week, which is about no further exploitation in other fields.
“But actually, the fields that are there, we can continue to have drilling and we continue to have tie-backs. So we've actually made it easier to do tie-backs into existing facilities.
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“So the opportunity to make sure that we exploit the resources that are in the North Sea are absolutely there and it's going to be part of the energy mix in Scotland for decades to come.”
The 2024 Labour General Election manifesto said that no new oil and gas licences would be issued, but existing ones would be honoured.
The Jackdaw gas field (which was green-lit in October) and the Rosebank oil field were approved by the previous Conservative-led administration, but then struck down in court.
The UK Government is currently deciding whether to re-approve development of Rosebank.
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