Kemi Badenoch has said her party winning a crunch by-election would be a victory for oil and gas workers in the North East.

The Conservative leader accused Labour and the SNP of ‘destroying livelihoods’ by failing to support the sector, and branded their approach as the ‘economics of the madhouse’.

In a strongly-worded attack, she said that ‘net zero zealots’ in both the Holyrood and Westminster administrations are doing all they can to kill off the North Sea industry and said this has led to plummeting house prices in Aberdeen, while its historic Union Street thoroughfare is ‘a shadow of its former self’.

Her comments came as she visits the Aberdeen South constituency today for a final campaign visit ahead of the by-election on Thursday.

The crisis facing the oil and gas industry has dominated the by-election, which was called after former SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn resigned as an MP following his election to Holyrood.

Writing in the Mail, Mrs Badenoch describes opposition to new drilling as ‘the economics of the madhouse’, and said: ‘A victory for the Scottish Conservatives would be a victory for oil and gas workers, and common sense.’

She also condemned Labour’s refusal to ditch the energy profits levy imposed as a ‘windfall tax’ on the industry.

In a rally in Aberdeen South on Tuesday, Mrs Badenoch will say a victory for Tory Douglas Lumsden could give the ‘kiss of life’ to the industry.

Ahead of the visit, she said: ‘If voters in Aberdeen South choose Douglas Lumsden as their MP on Thursday, it will send a deafening message that the SNP and Labour would ignore at their peril.

‘By electing Douglas, who worked in the sector for two decades, voters could give the kiss of life to North Sea oil and gas and help revitalise Aberdeen.’

In the 2024 general election in Aberdeen South, Mr Flynn won with 32.8 per cent of the vote, with Labour second on 24.7 per cent and the Conservatives third on 24.4 per cent.

Since then, Labour’s support is said to have sharply declined amid outrage at its ban on new oil and gas licences, while the Tories established themselves as the closest rival to the SNP in neighbouring constituencies in last month’s Holyrood elections.

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 Liam Kerr in Aberdeen Deeside and North Kincardine in the Holyrood election.

The Tories are now heavily targeting pro-UK voters who previously backed other parties in Aberdeen South in a bid to defeat SNP candidate Richard Thomson.

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: ‘Thursday’s by-election is a referendum on the future of North Sea oil and gas.

‘Kemi is a champion for oil and gas workers and the people of Aberdeen South have the chance to elect Douglas Lumsden – another great champion – as their MP.

‘This election is on a knife edge between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP so it’s essential for pro-UK voters to unite behind Douglas. If they split the vote by backing any other party, they’ll end up with a Nationalist MP who won’t stand up for oil and gas jobs.’

Mr Flynn, the new Economy Secretary, campaigned in Aberdeen South on Monday ahead of taking leave to attend the World Cup in a personal capacity.

He said: ‘What bugs me in this contest is you have Reform politicians who argue that oil and gas will last forever and we don’t need to have an energy transition at all, who have said they will get rid of all renewables jobs in Scotland, ignore carbon capture and storage opportunities up in the north east.’

He also attacked ‘Tory politicians who ignore the fact that they were the ones who introduced the energy profits levy’.