SCOTTISH and UK governments have “contributed net zero” to save workers at Scotland’s only oil refinery from the axe, Unite has said.

The comment was made by the union’s Scottish Secretary Derek Thomson as he addressed more than 150 delegates at Unite’s Scottish policy conference in Dundee at the weekend.

More than 400 workers at Grangemouth face losing their jobs next summer, if owner Petroineos goes ahead with plans to close the complex.

Mr Thomson condemned the apparent inability of both governments to build alternatives for workers, despite being aware of the closure of a site worth 4 per cent of Scotland’s GDP for more than two years.

Taking a swipe at the both Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and First Minister John Swinney, he told comrades: “In the first real test they have contributed ‘net zero’ in support of the Grangemouth workers.

“Make no mistake about this — the refinery’s closure is an economic earthquake which will be felt for generations to come.

“We need to ask the politicians, ‘why wouldn’t they take a transition stake to protect the jobs and wider supply chain at Grangemouth’?”

The Scottish government said: “Ministers have made clear their disappointment that Petroineos has made the commercial decision to cease refining at the site.”

Echoing that “disappointment”, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “We stand with the Grangemouth workforce in these difficult times.

“Our joint investment plan [with the Scottish government], will help the workforce find good alternative jobs and support the local community — as well as helping to secure a viable industrial future for the Grangemouth site.”