SCOTTISH Secretary Ian Murray has ruled out nationalisation of the Grangemouth oil refinery and said there were no guarantees of new jobs.
The Petroineos complex, which generates 4 per cent of Scotland’s GDP and constitutes 8 per cent of its manufacturing base, is due to close by next summer, with the loss of 400 jobs on site and almost 3,000 more in the wider supply chain.
Despite announcing a £500,000 joint effort with the SNP Scottish government to retrain Grangemouth workers at Forth Valley College for careers in renewables, Mr Murray could not promise new jobs for all.
“Government can’t give that guarantee,” he said on Thursday night.
“What we are trying to do is put the conditions in place to make sure all the opportunities are open.
“That’s what government can do and we need to make sure we minimise the number of jobs that are, indeed, lost.”
Displaying a similar lack of confidence in the capacity of government, SNP acting energy secretary Gillian Martin said: “It’s decisions that are made at a commercial level for private firms as to who they employ.
“I am pretty confident that all of them [Grangemouth workers] have a CV that would be very attractive to anyone wanting to invest.”
Mr Murray dismissed calls by local Labour MP Brian Leishman and the Unite union for the government to either nationalise the plant or take a stake in it to secure its future.
“It is off the table,” he said. “There is no question that the site can’t be nationalised.”
Hitting back on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Leishman said: “The UK government not stepping in means there’s no just transition for workers and communities, Scotland’s fuel and national security is weakened and overall it means there is no credible industrial strategy — wrong on every level.”
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham urged the British government to “stop dancing around its handbag” and take a stake in Grangemouth.
She said: “Government should be focused on preserving the current jobs, rather than making a smoke and mirrors announcement around training for jobs that don’t exist.
“If the UK and Scottish governments cannot get their act together to save 400 jobs at Grangemouth, workers in Scotland will have no faith that government can secure a just transition for thousands of other Scottish workers.
“Unite will not stand by and allow a jobless transition and the creation of yet another working-class wasteland.
“Not to save Grangemouth is a dereliction of duty.”
