Blitz Bureau
PRIME Minister Keir Starmer has announced £200m in funding to boost investment at Grangemouth oil refinery, which is closing down with the loss of more than 400 jobs.
Starmer said the national wealth fund would provide £200m in state investment for up to five companies who moved to Grangemouth, where several thousand jobs in the wider supply chain are also at risk. He said that should leverage up to £600m more in private investment, reports The Guardian.
Addressing newsmen after Scottish Labour’s annual conference, he rejected suggestions this had come too late for the scores of Grangemouth workers recently given redundancy notices, or those who will be laid off in the coming months.
He said the Labour had acted as quickly as it could, but it took time to work up a credible proposal. “It’s very easy to put proposals on the table that don’t hold water. What I want to do is take the time to do this properly,” he said.
“We’re not talking about just a sort of something that tides people over, not something for the next three or four years. It’s a generational opportunity for Grangemouth.” The crisis at Grangemouth has become a political headache for Labour in Scotland. Trade union leaders have accused the UK Government of failing to act quickly enough, and union members demonstrated outside the party conference in Glasgow on February 21, reported the paper.
Labour ministers privately accuse the former Conservative Government and Scottish National party ministers of being largely inactive despite knowing Grangemouth was due to close. Soon after the election, it announced a £100m growth deal for the region agreed with the Scottish Government.
