MINISTERS must “stop delivering excuses” and start investing in Ferguson Marine’s future, GMB Scotland warned today.

The union hit out after Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes admitted to Holyrood’s public audit committee that only 4 per cent of the Scottish government’s £14.2 million investment pledge in the yard this year had actually been signed off.

Ms Forbes confirmed to MSPs that just £570,000 had so far been invested across 11 requests including “facility repairs, health and safety improvements, and equipment upgrades,” warning that remaining funding “will be conditional on a clear, board-approved business case, evidenced through the revised business plan.”

GMB Scotland Secretary Louise Gilmour slammed the Scottish government for starving its own shipyard of investment while refusing to instruct another of its companies, CMAL, to directly award it a new ferry order as an “absurd catch-22 situation.”

She added: “Ministers must stop delivering excuses for a failure to invest in Ferguson’s future and start awarding contracts.

“It is beyond time for the transport secretary and CMAL to show they have a plan for Ferguson’s along with the vision, ambition and investment to deliver it.”