Euan Stainbank
Main Page: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)Department Debates - View all Euan Stainbank's debates with the Scotland Office
(5 days, 17 hours ago)
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Mr Alexander
It seems to have slipped the hon. Lady’s mind that the energy profits levy was introduced by the previous Conservative Government. It also seems to have slipped her mind that fully a third of the jobs in the North sea were lost during the Conservative Government’s time in office. They failed time and time again to come up with any credible plan. The status quo of that lost decade was 70,000 fewer jobs in the North sea.
Euan Stainbank (Falkirk) (Lab)
Jobs were lost at Grangemouth following Jim Ratcliffe’s decision to close the refinery. The then Tory Ministers, half of whom are now members of Reform, treated it as a commercial decision, and did and delivered nothing. In contrast, the UK Labour Government invested £120 million in December to save Grangemouth’s ethylene plant, but given the closure of the refinery, we must move far more quickly. What efforts is the Secretary of State making to deliver a new industry in Grangemouth with the £200 million allocated to the site by the Labour Government?
Mr Alexander
I assure my hon. Friend that, together with officials, I am actively engaged in efforts to secure the future of the Grangemouth industrial cluster, and I was central to the UK Government’s commitment of £120 million last December to secure the future of the wider site. In December last year, funding of up to £3 million was announced for the Scottish biotech company MiAlgae, which is expected to create up to 310 jobs over the next five years. However, the work continues.