Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of ‘running scared’ from Scots voters over his oil and gas policy after it was confirmed he will play no part in campaigning in two crunch Westminster by-elections.

The Prime Minister is not scheduled to visit the Aberdeen South or Arbroath and Broughty Ferry constituencies despite voters going to the polls next week.

It follows his major rift with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who doubled down on his calls for Sir Keir to quit in the wake of Labour’s reversals in the Holyrood poll and Welsh and English local elections last month.

The by-elections were called after Nationalist MPs Stephen Flynn and Stephen Gethins quit to switch to the Scottish parliament.

The Conservatives have billed the Aberdeen South vote as a local referendum on North Sea drilling, amid growing anger in the North East about Labour’s ban on new licences.

Other UK leaders, including Tory Kemi Badenoch and Reform’s Nigel Farage, have played an active part in their party’s push for votes.

A Scottish Labour source confirmed that Sir Keir will not be campaigning in Scotland ahead of the votes, saying: ‘We’ve made our position on him clear.

‘He was not up during the Scottish parliament elections, if there is any visit at all by him in a UK Government capacity that’s his decision but there is no campaign planning for a visit.’

A Downing Street source said any Prime Minister travel would be set out in the usual way but ‘it’s unusual for PMs to campaign in by-elections’.

Douglas Lumsden, the Scottish Conservative candidate for Aberdeen South, said: ‘Keir Starmer is clearly running scared from voters in the North East because he knows they would relish the chance to express their fury at how Labour is destroying the oil and gas industry.

‘Their reckless ban on new drilling – which is supported by the SNP – and their extension of the Energy Profits Levy is costing 1,000 jobs a month and killing off billions-worth of potential investment in the North Sea.

‘The by-election next week in Aberdeen South gives voters the chance to send the SNP and Labour a message that we need to get Britain drilling again.’

The Tories are pushing hard to oust the SNP in the seat left by its former Westminster leader Mr Flynn in Aberdeen South as they bid to fight back from bruising Holyrood election results.

Labour is seeking to win Mr Gethins’ former seat, where the SNP had a majority of only 859 in 2024. 

Party strategists said anger about the scandal involving Mr Murrell is coming across on the doorsteps – despite Lara Bird, the SNP’s candidate in Arbroath and Brought Ferry, saying it hasn’t come up ‘at all’.

Mr Lumsden was elected to Holyrood last month through the regional list for North East Scotland after he finished just 943 votes behind the SNP’s Gillian Martin in Aberdeenshire East.

Losing either of the two by-elections could pile pressure on SNP leader John Swinney in the wake of the Peter Murrell scandal.

The SNP plunged from 48 seats at Westminster following the 2019 general election to only nine following the 2024 general election.