Ding ding ding! The gloves are coming off, as Scottish Labour backbencher Brian Leishman today took aim at Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband in the Commons over Grangemouth. First bashing both the SNP and previous Tory governments, Leishman turned the guns on his own government minister.
Today marks the day that all oil refining in Scotland has come to an end, after the company that runs the refinery, Petroineos, notified staff that operations had ceased and the first group of redundant workers will be leaving the plant, with 200 to lose their jobs by the end of June. Hitting out at Labour pre-election promises on the future of Scotland’s oil plant, Leishman raged:
Mr Speaker, today is the end of over a century of refining at Grangemouth. Scotland once again is a victim of industrial vandalism and devastation – and I do not want anyone in this chamber to dare mention a ‘just transition’ – because we all know that the Conservatives were in power and the SNP, currently in Holyrood, did nothing to avert this catastrophic decision happening.
I put it to the Secretary of State that the Labour leadership in the general election campaign said that they would step in and save the jobs at the refinery. What has changed and why have we not done the sensible thing for Scotland’s energy security?
Shots fired! It’s not the first time Leishman has taken aim at Labour over Grangemouth either, lambasting Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs earlier this year too. Appearing rather taken aback at the strength of Leishman’s question, a bumbling Miliband acknowledged the ‘important role’ the oil plant has in Scotland before insisting that the Labour lot had ‘put money in to help the workers’ and made an investment commitment in partnership with the SNP government. He continued: ‘We are absolutely committed to building the future for Grangemouth communities, and we look forward to working with him and members across the House to do that.’ Not that this is of much use to the workers being made redundant now, however…
Watch the clip here:
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