What a weekend it has been. Just how many by-elections does it take to trigger another go on the merry-go-round for the Boris Johnson melodrama that is the Tory party?

We had a poll putting Labour neck and neck with the chaotic SNP as Nicola Sturgeon returned home, inviting the press to witness the occasion while proclaiming the need for her neighbour’s privacy. Neither the polling nor the collapse of the Conservatives and SNP gives room for complacency. I know Labour has to prove itself to the electorate at every election. That’s why I spend most of my weekends on the doorstep, listening to voters.

Just how Keir Starmer would transform that growing trust in Labour into action was evident in Edinburgh as he detailed how the UK could become a clean-energy superpower. Labour will do what the SNP failed to in 2017 by creating a publicly owned energy company, but on a much larger scale.

GB Energy will be headquartered in Scotland – serving all four UK nations, backed by £28 billion a year from the UK Treasury – and will ensure our commitment to the environment is matched by a commitment to the country’s energy sector.

I believe this will be as transformative as Tom Johnston’s “power from the glens” when Labour built the hydro dams and brought mains electricity to the Highlands after 1945. The ambition for GB Energy is on that scale. Unlike the Tories, we’ll use the power of the state, not to stifle the green energy sector, but to lead the transformation to solar, wind and wave power, cut our bills and deliver energy security.

As we pivot away from carbon fuels, Labour will invest in the renewables industry. But that does not mean the end of the North Sea, as detractors have sought to claim. The North Sea will continue to provide jobs and oil security for decades to come. We will not leave communities with generational links to oil and gas, the way the Tories abandoned the miners in the 1980s. Our aim is to double the number of low-carbon sector jobs in Scotland, with 50,000 direct and indirect jobs in the clean power sector alone.

If we get this transformation right, clean power will save Scottish households £8.4 billion by 2030. Combined with the warm homes plan, it will mean £1,400 off bills for every family. Moreover, Labour’s plans will enshrine the principle that whenever clean power infrastructure is being built, local communities will benefit. That could be community land owners or local authorities taking a stake in developments or getting grants and loans for their own green schemes.

Labour leader Keir Starmer and his Scottish Labour counterpart Anas Sarwar laid out their plans for the energy sector at the tidal energy company Nova Innovation in Edinburgh (Picture: Peter Summers/Getty Images)

Parts of Scotland already lead the way in community ownership of land and have taken the initiative to build community-owned windfarms, benefiting local people. That’s a ready-made Scottish template for GBE to follow.

The sums involved are transformative: £28 billion a year does not translate into fewer jobs, but more jobs. It means lower bills, warmer homes, less reliance on energy from an unstable Russia and the Middle East, and that the UK will lead the green-energy revolution. So stop the Tory and SNP merry-go-rounds, we want to get off, so a Labour government can change lives and change the country for the better.

Jackie Baillie is Scottish Labour MSP for Dumbarton

Labour's green energy plans will kickstart an economic revolution with more jobs, lower bills and warmer homes – Jackie Baillie

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