When Donald Dewar rose to his feet to make his maiden speech as the newly elected MP for Aberdeen South, oil was just something Scots fried their chips in.

Listen to this article

The discovery of the North Sea’s black gold - and the billions it pumped into Treasury coffers - was still years away.

So the man who was later to become the father of devolution focused on the hugely controversial “potato tax” proposed by the Labour government in 1966. And when voters go to the polls this Thursday in a crucial by-election, it is the future of another controversial tax - the energy profits levy and its impact on North Sea jobs and investment - which could well swing the outcome.

Not that Dewar’s party is in the race this time round, mind you - Labour might as well stand a potato for the chance they’ve got of winning. They may have been runners-up in 2024, but this by-election is without doubt a verdict not just on Keir Starmer’s government, but on Ed Miliband and his net zero strategy. Just saying that the HQ of GB Energy will be based in Aberdeen, it turns out, is really not enough to convince folk you're serious about their jobs.

Sure the result won’t have the impact an Andy Burnham win in Makerfield on the same day will likely have on the UK government, but the fact that Labour isn’t even at the races in a seat it held for 26 out of the 49 years since Dewar’s day til the post-independence election of 2015 - which saw Anne Begg swept........

© LBC