The SNP has ended its "presumption against" policy on new oil and gas developments.

At the party's conference at the P&J Live, members overwhelmingly backed a motion by energy minister Stephen Gethins to shift the party's attitude on the issue, endorsing domestic production over importing from overseas.

The Press and Journal reports it also condemned the energy windfall tax and saw off a move by the party’s trade union group to increase the levy on fossil fuel extractors.

Speaking on stage during the debate at the conference, former SNP MP Richard Thomson, who recently lost the Aberdeen South by-election to the Conservatives, said the party’s presumption against oil and gas had been “hung around our neck like an albatross” by the Tory campaign.

Supporting to motion to ditch the presumption against policy, Aberdeen North MP Kirsty Blackman, said the party “cannot support the decimation of Aberdeen”.

Read the full story in The Press and Journal.

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