Corbyn’s plan for oil jobs in Dundee

Labour leader vows to launch decommissioning strategy aimed at rejuvenating industry in the city as part of anti-austerity programme

Jeremy Corbyn is to launch a decommissioning strategy aimed at rejuvenating Dundee industry.

The North Sea plan will form part of a wider economic strategy, which shadow chancellor John McDonnell will travel across the UK to take ideas on.

Mr Corbyn told activists at the Labour conference in Liverpool that a “clear, economic alternative” was key to winning back power.

The re-elected UK leader said his party would be consulting on a date for an economic development conference for Scotland.

It would involve trade unions, Scottish party and other relevant stakeholders, he added.

The Islington MP said the economic strategy would be about opposing austerity and ensuring there is industrial and infrastructure development all over Scotland.

It would also deal with “the issues of decommissioning of drilling rigs and what happens to Dundee and Aberdeen post-oil if you like”, he added.

Mr Corbyn said: “So that conference will be organised, hopefully in the latter parts of this year.

“It will be a demonstration of how the Labour Party is engaged with everybody seriously about an economic future that does put forward something different to austerity, is about investment, but above all is using the knowledge, imagination and creativity of those that produce the wealth we all rely on to take things forward for us.

“It’s bottom-up democracy, but I tell you what – it works, it’s very powerful and very popular.”

David Webster, manager of Dundee’s port, recently backed the city to benefit from upwards of 1,500 decommissioning jobs which will “definitely” come to the city following a summit arranged by Labour MSP Jenny Marra.

Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn tried to talk up his party’s chances in Scotland as he acknowledged the disastrous Holyrood election result where Labour plummeted behind the Conservatives.

Insisting “we are here, we are very strong”, he pointed to the recent by-election wins for Mary Lockhart in The Lochs in Fife, as well as victories in Irvine and Coatbridge.

His intervention came as a bitter war between Labour’s UK and Scottish leaders further escalated – but ended in defeat for Mr Corbyn.

Five attempts to block plans for more autonomy and influence for Kezia Dugdale had failed over the past few days and the leader of the opposition at Westminster appeared to concede to his counterpart north of the border.

It’s bottom-up democracy, but I tell you what – it works, it’s very powerful and very popular. JEREMY CORBYN

A fresh attempt by the leader’s allies to stop the party’s Scottish and Welsh leaders or their representatives sitting on the ruling National Executive Committee was rejected when it met yesterday morning.

Previous attempts launched at NEC meetings last Tuesday and Saturday, as well as two bids from the conference floor in Liverpool, have already been knocked back.

Mr Corbyn told the BBC he was confident a Scottish seat on the NEC will be passed today and he’s happy for the representative to be appointed by Ms Dugdale.

Ms Dugdale said: “We have been working on these proposals for a long time. It is the right thing for Scotland and the right thing for the whole party and I am looking forward to the debate tomorrow.”

Scotland’s only Labour MP, Ian Murray, had earlier blasted that the proposals being blocked could bring about the demise of the party north of the border.

A further meeting of the NEC planned for this morning has been postponed until the evening, removing a potential obstacle to the reforms.

But there could still be another challenge to the package from the conference floor before the changes are voted on. kiandrews@thecourier.co.uk Sitting immediately outside Echo Arena in Liverpool, the venue for Labour’s UK conference, is the John Lennon Peace Memorial.

The Beatles are inescapable here. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell even closed his keynote speech by saying the word “imagine” over and over again.

But any thoughts of love and harmony – so often preached by the Fab Four – are a distant dream for politicians and activists in this party.

The only thing which could cause more arguments would be who is assuming the role of Yoko Ono and will eventually cause Labour to split.

Creative differences could barely be any greater between Kezia Dugdale and Jeremy Corbyn right now.

As the Scottish Labour leader strolled across the stage to deliver her conference speech, her UK counterpart sat grumpily.

It barely mattered that she was talking ‘bout a revolution of tax rises to pay for education services, Dugdale has been winning this week’s power struggle.

By all accounts Kez vs Jez has resulted in a lot of twisting and shouting behind closed doors, with the Scot coming out on top over her proposals for greater power and more autonomy.

“We can work it out,” they say in public. We’ll see.