THE UK Government has been accused of adding “insult to injury” after repeatedly refusing to disclose the amount of public funding it has spent to keep an English oil refinery running.
Last month, the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire went into administration – but Labour ministers said they would step in to fund its continued operations.
“The Government will ensure that supplies are maintained, protect our energy security, and do everything we can to support the workers,” Energy Minister Michael Shanks told the Commons.
Last week, in answer to a written question from SNP MP Graham Leadbitter, Shanks refused to disclose the scale of the UK Government funding being paid to keep the Lindsey refinery open.
He said only that Labour were providing “short-term funding to cover the essential operating costs of the refinery” and that the “final operating cost will depend on market conditions”.
On Tuesday, Leadbitter raised the refusal to reveal the funding levels in the Commons with Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.
The SNP MP said: “The workers of Grangemouth deserved far better than they got from the Labour Government, and to add insult to injury, they have had to watch them pull out all the stops for Scunthorpe [Steelworks] and Prax Lindsey.
“In a written answer to me, the minister refused to confirm how much money the UK Government had spent to continue operations at Lindsey.
“So will you now come clean and tell us what is the price they're willing to pay to save jobs in England, that they weren't willing to pay to save Grangemouth in Scotland?”
“The honourable gentleman is so wide of the mark it's unbelievable,” he said. “This is an issue. This is an issue. The Grangemouth closure was foreshadowed before this government came to power.
“We have worked hand in glove with his colleagues in the Scottish Government all the way along, myself and [Scottish Energy Secretary] Gillian Martin have been working on it, and for him to try and make party politics out of this issue is frankly a disgrace.”
The Grangemouth oil refinery, in Falkirk, stopped producing in May and some 400 workers have been made redundant. The UK Government pledged £200 million towards a future for the site, but later made clear that none of the funding will be made available unless private investment comes forward.
Speaking afterwards, Leadbitter said Grangemouth workers were “being forced to watch as [Labour] spend literally untold sums to save jobs at a refinery in England”.
He went on: “The Labour Government cannot seriously maintain that they are acting in the interests of workers in Scotland who are facing redundancy whilst they refuse to answer basic questions around secretive funding for jobs at Prax Lindsey.
“Grangemouth is a test of how much the Labour UK Government cares about Scotland and about our economic needs, and right now it’s clear both are barely an afterthought to them.
“My colleagues and I will continue to press the Labour Party to do right by Scotland’s energy sector and its workers by nationalising Grangemouth and setting out an industrial strategy to safeguard the sector from the threats it faces."
