SCOTTISH Labour MSPs have rejected proposals to give Grangemouth oil refinery equal protections to Scunthorpe's British Steel works.
Earlier this month, British Steel was taken into government ownership to protect it from the damaging effects of Donald Trump's tariffs.
The Labour Government took urgent action, recalling parliament on a weekend in a historic sitting to keep the English site going.
Meanwhile, the UK Government has failed to offer equivalent support for Grangemouth oil refinery – which stopped processing crude oil for good on Tuesday. The site will close later this year, with hundreds of jobs to go with it.
In Holyrood on Tuesday, not one Labour MSP backed a motion urging the UK Government to intervene to save Grangemouth in the way it had Scunthorpe.
It called on "the UK Government [to] give similar consideration to its engagement with the Grangemouth oil refinery, given its significance to national resilience and high-quality job opportunities."
Some 61 SNP MSPs and 30 Scottish Tory MSPs backed the motion. However, 17 Labour MSPs rejected it, and five failed to vote.
The 17 Labour MSPs who voted against it were Alex Rowley, Anas Sarwar, Carol Mochan, Claire Baker, Colin Smyth, Daniel Johnson, Foysol Choudhury, Katy Clark, Mark Griffin, Martin Whitfield, Mercedes Villalba, Neil Bibby, Pam Duncan-Glancy, Paul O'Kane, Paul Sweeney, Rhoda Grant and Sarah Boyack.
The Greens and LibDems also supported the motion with the Government. Alba's Ash Regan did not vote.
SNP MSP Kevin Stewart called out Labour for their failure to show up for Grangemouth workers. “Labour’s decision to vote against calls for the UK Government to give similar consideration to its engagement with the Grangemouth oil refinery as they did to British Steel in Scunthorpe is a shameful betrayal of workers," he said. “On the day Grangemouth refinery ceased operation, Anas Sarwar's party had a chance to stand up for Scotland’s interests and they failed. “Unlike Labour, the SNP will always stand up for Scottish industry. We will continue to call on the UK Government to provide the same urgent support to Grangemouth – a strategic national asset – as they did Scunthorpe, and not treat our industry as an afterthought.”
