Scotland's Health Secretary has called for the windfall tax on oil and gas profits to be "widened", but insists his party does not want an extension of the policy.

Neil Gray says the policy being widened would help Scotland transition from oil and gas to renewables, without targeting companies producing oil and gas.

"We need to take them with us," he said.

"We accept the position that there needs to be a windfall tax.

"We want to see fairness in the system so we don’t have an extension that only targets oil and gas companies when we need their investment to see a just transition to green energy.

"There has to be a wider spread of the windfall tax to ensure we are fair and consistent.

"There is an argument to be had at Westminster around a windfall tax post-Covid that sees companies which have benefitted from the Covid period and seen significant profits seeing a fair tax on the back of that.

"But that cannot be used to fund nuclear energy projects in England or a tax cut, it needs to be for an energy transition."

Labour has 'turned their backs' on the transition, claims Gray

Speaking to The Scotsman, Gray claimed that Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has "signed up to the Tory fiscal rules".

He continued: "That is a choice she’s decided to take in terms of how she will steer the economy, but it is not the only choice.

"The greatest economic opportunity we have is the transformation of energy to green energy and the opportunity there in Scotland for jobs and energy security.

"Labour has turned their backs on a huge opportunity, which is why we need SNP MPs at Westminster holding Labour to account on this."

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