ONE OF Scotland’s leading oil magnates has launched a stinging attack on the Labour government, accusing it of destroying the economic transformation created in Britain by 17 years of Conservative government.
Alasdair Locke, the executive chairman of oil rigs and services giant Abbot Group, predicted that the extent to which Labour has unpicked the achievements of the Conservatives would emerge over the next few years.
In an interview with the Sunday Herald, Locke said: “Their [Labour’s] main mistakes have been excessive spending on public services and a huge increase in taxation, much of it by stealth. There’s also been a huge increase in regulation, which makes us massively less competitive.”
He had warmer words for Alex Salmond, describing the first minister as “head and shoulders above all the other politicians in Scotland”.
Locke, who last month sold Abbot to US venture capitalists First Reserve in a £909 million deal from which he personally grossed £120m, said that the total cost of employing someone in the UK is now so high that when prioritising future investment Abbot will look elsewhere. “The cheapest place to operate in Europe is Germany, by a long way,” said Locke, a long-term supporter and funder of the Conservatives.
Freed from the stock market following the First Reserve deal, he also accused the City of thinking only quarter by quarter, pointing to his disillusionment when Abbot’s shares were marked down following its £247m acquisition of Songa Drilling in 2006.
“I think that half – if not all – fund managers are half-baked. I wouldn’t have said that a few weeks ago but now I feel I can,” he said.
This article, bylined Ian Fraser and Karen Peattie, was published in the Sunday Herald on 20 January 2008, to accompany a much longer interview piece with Abbot Group founder and chairman, Alasdair Locke – Alasdair Locke’s £120m stock . . . and lots of barrels