Alex Salmond: Heavy taxes will 'cripple' North Sea oil industry

Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond has urged the government to cut heavy taxes hitting the North Sea oil industry.

Mr Salmond made the comments to BBC radio as he arrived in London following his recent election success.

He criticised the £2 billion windfall tax on the North Sea oil industry and warned that the levy could cost up to 10,000 jobs.

"It will actually make future chancellors worse off in the long term because it will lead to a substantial reduction in what investment would have been," he told the news source.

Mr Salmond added that he would be discussing alternatives with chancellor George Osborne.

"What I will be saying to him will be that there is a way to get most of the money but to maintain most of the jobs," the first minister explained.

This view is supported by Oil & Gas UK, which has previously stated that the levy could cost the oil industry as much as £50 billion over a ten-year period.