The Labour Government has caused outrage in SNP circles by announcing plans to spend billions of pounds earmarked for clean energy projects on nuclear plants even as the cost consumers paid for the surfeit of windfarms in Scotland ballooned in the latest year.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves provided plenty of good news for Scotland in the Comprehensive Spending Review last week when she confirmed the UK Government would provide billions of pounds support for the proposed Scottish carbon capture cluster.

However, critics focused on the revelation that the Westminster administration planned to use £2.5bn allocated to the fledgling Great British Energy operation to fund work on a new generation of small modular nuclear reactors.

SNP supporters slammed the move which they claimed would leave a big hole in the £8.3bn budget that GB Energy had promised would be used to support the development of technologies such as floating offshore wind and tidal energy.

Keir Starmer decided to put the official headquarters of GB Energy in Aberdeen to mollify critics of his cabinet’s decision to curb oil and gas activity.

But the SNP Government has opposed North Sea field developments that could create thousands of jobs.

It has pinned its hopes on the expansion of wind power, which acting climate change minister Alasdair Allan claimed recently could create thousands of high-quality jobs in support of a just transition from dependence on oil and gas. The number of renewables jobs created in Scotland, however, has fallen below expectations for years.

© Herald Scotland