By STEPHEN McGREGOR,

Parliamentary Correspondent

OPPOSITION MPs last night united in their condemnation of the

Government's response to a critical report from the Commons Energy

Select Committee on the BP takeover of Britoil in February 1988.

The Government's comments, released yesterday, were described as

totally inadequate and insulting by the SNP, while the Liberal Democrats

spoke of a whitewash and Labour accused the Government of turning its

back on questionable industrial practices.

In marked contrast to the tone of the committee's findings, the

Government has taken a considerably softer line with BP, claiming that

''important benefits for the UK and for Scotland in particular have

resulted from the acquisition.''

It states in the response: ''The reserves of Britoil's producing

fields have been upgraded by an average of 24.5%. Exploration activity

has increased significantly and development work is at a high level.

''Glasgow has become BP Exploration's European headquarters,

concentrating new responsibilities, new activity and the direction of

future business in Scotland and bringing consequential benefits to the

city.''

The Government also appears to be paving the way for dispensing with

its ''golden share'' in Britoil, possibly by the end of this year.

The Energy Committee report, published last December, centred on two

key aspects of the takeover -- assurances given by BP on employment in

Scotland and sales of Britoil assets.

It concluded that while BP had complied with the letter of assurances

on jobs in Scotland, it was not convinced the company had acted ''fully

in accord with the spirit of that assurance.''

BP has maintained that, despite the 970 redundancies in Aberdeen and

Glasgow announced last year, it now employs many more people in Scotland

than at the time of the takeover.

However, union representatives and others have claimed that jobs in

Scotland were sacrificed in order to make way for the transfer of BP

employees from London.

The overall impression given by the committee was that BP deserved a

firm rap over the knuckles and that it would have to tread carefully in

its future treatment of Britoil assets and staff.

However, the Government appears not to share the committee's view. On

jobs, the Government's response says: ''BP's assurance was that overall

employee numbers in Aberdeen and Glasgow, taking BP and Britoil

together, would not fall as a result of the acquisition.

''BP has made clear both to the Department (of Energy) and to the

committee that the combined staff numbers in Aberdeen and Glasgow, after

the implementation of the restructuring, will remain higher than at the

time of the purchase of Britoil. On this basis, the Department is

satisfied that the terms of the assurance have been met.''

On the sale of $610m worth of Britoil's UK Continental Shelf assets,

it says: ''The department concluded that the asset value concerned was

not so large as to fall outside the ordinary course of trading in the

particular context of UKCS activity and of BP, who have assets of over

#20 billion and annual after-tax earnings in excess of #1 billion.''

The SNP's Energy spokesman, Mr Alex Salmond, who is a member of the

Energy Select Committee, said: ''The Government's reply to the

committee's report is totally inadequate and an insult to the 1000

people who lost their jobs in Scotland as a result of BP

rationalisation.

''In ignoring many of the key findings, the Department, under Tory

control, has once again demonstrated that it is not fit to independently

police the North Sea and certainly has no intention of protecting

Scottish interests.''

Shadow Scottish Secretary Mr Donald Dewar said: ''For many in Scotland

this means that the company has got away with actions which were outside

the spirit of its assurances. The Government's refusal to respond in a

more positive way will cause understandable bitterness among those who

have lost their jobs.''

Mr Malcolm Bruce, Energy spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said:

''In clearing BP of reneging on job promises in Scotland, the Government

has delivered an utterly predictable whitewash.''