Voters in a crunch by-election have been told they can help ensure Sir Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband have ‘nowhere left to hide’ on new oil and gas drilling.

The Scottish Conservatives said Thursday’s Aberdeen South by-election can send a message on the need to permit new North Sea licences and claimed that the current ban is ‘economic madness’.

The Tory candidate in the by-election has branded it a straight battle between his party and the SNP, and warned that voters backing other parties like Reform UK will make it more likely that the SNP candidate wins.

It comes as the SNP steps up its bid to hold onto the seat, with departing MP Stephen Flynn, who triggered the by-election after quitting Westminster for Holyrood, due to campaign in the constituency on Monday prior to skipping parliament to attend the World Cup.

The future of the oil and gas industry has dominated the by-election campaign.

Douglas Lumsden, the Scottish Conservative candidate for Aberdeen South, said: ‘On Thursday, voters in Aberdeen South can ensure that Sir Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband have nowhere left to hide.

‘Their reckless ban on new licences in the North Sea – which is supported by John Swinney and the SNP – is costing 1,000 jobs per month and wrecking Aberdeen’s economy. However, Thursday’s by-election, where every vote will count, can change things. Voters in Aberdeen South can send the strongest possible message that these policies must end, by sending me down to Westminster as a pro-oil-and-gas MP.

‘It is economic madness that both Labour and the SNP are opposed to new drilling. That is the number one issue voters are bringing up on the doorstep. If they want to beat the SNP and save oil and gas jobs, they must unite behind me and vote for the Scottish Conservatives. A vote for any other party will just help the Nationalists to cling on.’

In last month’s Holyrood elections, the Tories endured heavy losses and fell from 31 seats after the 2021 vote to just 12.

Reform UK secured 17 seats, putting it in joint second place with Labour, while the SNP won 58 seats despite a huge slump in its vote share compared to 2021.

But the Tories are fighting hard to begin their fightback by winning Aberdeen South and Kemi Badenoch is expected to make another visit to the seat in the final days of the campaign.

The Mail revealed last week that Sir Keir is expected to play no part in the campaign in Aberdeen South, or in the Arbroath and Broughty Ferry constituency where voters go to the polls in another by-election on Thursday.

Mr Lumsden was elected to the Scottish Parliament last month through the Scottish Conservative regional list for North East Scotland after he finished just 943 votes behind the SNP’s Gillian Martin in the Aberdeenshire East constituency. Mr Flynn also only narrowly defeated Tory candidate Liam Kerr in the Aberdeen Deeside and North Kincardine constituency in the Holyrood election, with a majority of 1,244.

Ahead of campaigning in Aberdeen South on Monday, Mr Flynn, who was first elected to the seat in 2019, said: ‘The Tories destroyed 70,000 oil and gas jobs, they introduced the hated windfall tax that is costing 1000 jobs a month while the Tory candidate here was a lickspittle for Liz Truss who wrecked the economy.

‘People in Aberdeen will never forgive the Tories for what they did to our city and we cannot let them or Farage get their hands on Aberdeen South.

‘Families in Aberdeen are paying the price every day for the disaster that was the Tory government - a cost of living crisis, the windfall tax and job losses on an industrial scale. That is the Tories’ toxic legacy in Aberdeen.

‘Aberdeen South needs a strong voice for our city in Westminster, not a Tory or Reform MP who will lie down to the Westminster establishment- that strong voice can only come from the SNP and Richard Thomson. On Thursday, vote for the SNP for an MP that will always be on the side of Aberdeen South - vote SNP to beat the Tories and Farage.’