On Thursday, voters go to the polls in a by-election that could have important and wide-ranging implications for our country.

No, I’m not talking about Makerfield. The result there may determine how quickly Keir Starmer is put out of his misery. But we’ll still be stuck with a high-tax, benefits-splurging Labour government.

It’s the outcome of the by-election taking place in Aberdeen South that could lead to profound and positive change. It’s not merely a contest to elect a new MP, it’s a referendum on the future of the North Sea oil and gas industry. It’s a chance for voters to force two reckless governments – at Westminster and Holyrood – to change course.

For decades, the oil and gas sector has been the economic lifeblood of North-East Scotland, providing tens of thousands of jobs directly, and countless more indirectly through supply chains and other associated roles.

Domestic oil and gas is also required to, quite literally, fuel the nation. Our energy security depends on utilising the billions of barrels-worth of resources untapped in the North Sea. 

That’s because renewable and nuclear sources, while important, don’t yet come close to meeting our needs.

It ought to be a no-brainer that we extract every last drop of black gold from beneath our own waters. Drilling our oil isn’t just good for our energy security, it’s good for both our financial and national security.

And yet this world-leading sector is on life support, despite having cutting-edge technology and a highly skilled workforce at its disposal.

Why? Because net-zero zealots in Labour and the SNP are doing everything they can to kill it off.

Ed Miliband’s ban on new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, coupled with Labour’s refusal to ditch the windfall tax, is destroying livelihoods across North-East Scotland.

This lethal cocktail is responsible for the loss of 1,000 oil and gas jobs every month. That’s utterly devastating.

It’s little wonder that Aberdeen house prices are plummeting or that Union Street is a shadow of its former self.

The SNP are no better than Labour. The Nationalists opposed the Rosebank and Jackdaw developments and refuse to ditch their ‘presumption against’ new drilling in the North Sea.

And let’s not forget that the SNP were the first to demand a windfall tax.

So John Swinney’s recent warmer words towards oil and gas workers are just a cynical attempt to dupe voters into thinking he’s changed his tune. The public can see right through him because he and his SNP ministers insist that strict ‘climate compatibility tests’ must be met before they would give their blessing to any new drilling.

In practice, this translates – as it did with Rosebank and Jackdaw – to a flat ‘no’ from the Nationalists.

In contrast to Labour and the SNP, my position, and that of the Conservative Party, is unequivocal and rooted in logic: we must get Britain drilling again.

It’s imperative that we give new oil and gas developments the go-ahead to safeguard jobs and keep the nation’s lights on.

To ensure that happens, we need to make the conditions as favourable as possible for would-be investors. So, the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) must go.

It was only ever designed to be a short-term measure to insulate households against rising fuel bills at a time when the oil price spiked immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The situation could not be more different now. The domestic oil and gas sector is on life support. 

How can you have a windfall tax when there’s no windfall left to tax? It defies belief that Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer have extended the EPL, instead of ditching it. 

The hostile environment they’ve created for producers has left Britain and our allies in the absurd position of having to buy oil and gas products from despotic regimes like Putin’s Russia, instead of extracting it from our own waters.

It’s the economics of the madhouse. Their ineptitude would be almost comical if it wasn’t so serious.

It makes me furious that Labour and the SNP’s net-zero ideology is wreaking so much havoc. It’s why I have visited Aberdeen so many times since becoming Conservative leader, making the case for fresh drilling and supporting our oil and gas industry.

In politics, problems are often intractable, and solutions difficult to find. But in this case the solution is staring us in the face. We need oil and gas. We have oil and gas – so let’s extract it.

That’s why Aberdeen South matters. A victory for the Scottish Conservatives would be a victory for oil and gas workers, and common sense. But this by-election is on a knife edge. It’s a desperately close two-horse race between our local candidate, Douglas Lumsden, and the SNP. 

In the corresponding seat at the Scottish parliament election last month, Scottish Conservatives were just 1,200 votes behind the Nationalists.

What stopped us winning then was a split in the pro-UK vote, which enabled the SNP to come through the middle. We can’t let that happen again.

Douglas Lumsden is the ONLY candidate who can beat the Nationalists. If you vote for any party other than the Scottish Conservatives on Thursday, you will be helping the SNP win by default. And you will be saddled with an MP who won’t stand up for oil and gas jobs.

But elect Douglas, and you’ll have a great local champion at Westminster. He’s from Aberdeen and he spent over two decades working in the oil and gas industry before entering politics. This is personal to him. He gets it.

That’s why I’ll be joining him on the campaign trail once again today.

Whatever plot twist in Labour’s psychodrama unfolds in the North West of England, it’s a by-election in the North East of Scotland that could be the real game changer.

If Douglas Lumsden and the Scottish Conservatives were to beat the SNP, it would send a lightning bolt of a message to the occupants of Downing Street and Bute House that their war on oil and gas must end now.

For the sake of an industry and a city on its knees – and a nation craving energy security – the stakes could scarcely be higher.