Overview
- The Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch visited Aberdeen on Tuesday to intensify campaigning and framed the June 18 by-election as a referendum on saving North Sea oil and gas jobs.
- Tory candidate Douglas Lumsden, an ex‑oil‑sector worker, and party chiefs are urging voters to back them to secure scrapping of the Energy Profits Levy and new licences as a way to revive local industry.
- The SNP says the Conservatives lack credibility on energy, blames past Tory policy for mass job losses and disputes the Tories’ figures about current job declines, with competing numerical claims reported but not independently verified.
- Parties describe the race as ‘on a knife edge’ between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP, and campaigners warn that vote‑splitting among pro‑UK voters could hand the seat to the Nationalists.
- The by‑election was triggered by SNP MP Stephen Flynn’s resignation after his election to Holyrood, and the result could put fresh political pressure on both Westminster and the Scottish government over energy policy and Aberdeen’s local economy.