The SNP has been accused of serving up a “pathetic” briefing parroting “scripted lines” to party MSPs on the ferries crisis.
In the document, leaked to the Record, the Nationalists went back sixteen years to point the finger at the Labour administration under Jack McConnell.
Labour MSP Neil Bibby said: “It is frankly embarrassing for the SNP MSPs expected to wheel out this nonsense in defence of the indefensible."
The Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow was saved by the SNP Government in 2019 after collapsing into administration, but the rescue deal laid bare a number of issues which would cause multi-year delays to two key vessels under construction.
The decision of Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) – the body tasked with procuring Scotland’s ferries – to invite four foreign yards to tender for two ferries to serve Islay and Jura also created huge anger last week.
Nicola Sturgeon’s Government has been dogged by criticism over Ferguson Marine and Finance Secretary Kate Forbes has said she is “monitoring” the yard's leadership.
The SNP has now been criticised for circulating what critics believe is a tame briefing to MSPs which does not criticise the Government.
Produced on September 17, researchers said the SNP Government had been clear with Ferguson’s management on the need to get the yard “into shape”.
It added that the Government would stand “firm on its commitment to the vessels, the workforce and the yard" and cast back to the early part of this century: "The SNP Scottish Government will always back the shipbuilding industry in Scotland.
“In 2005, when the yard faced closure because of the inaction of Jack McConnell’s Labour government, we joined with Labour rebels to demand the yard was saved.”
Read the full briefing here
Mike Mackenzie, a former SNP MSP who is now a member of ALBA, said: "I would suggest that this briefing suggests a shocking naivety and complete lack of understanding of how such businesses work.
"You don’t finish one job and then sit around twiddling your thumbs hoping to win another contract. The only way to run such a business successfully and to employ your workforce efficiently is to have a pipeline of contracts."
Bibby, Scottish Labour’s transport spokesman, said: “The SNP are no strangers to spin, but this ferries fiasco is clearly stretching their abilities.
“This pathetic attempt at a briefing exposes just how weak their arguments are.
“However they try and spin it, anyone can see that on the SNP’s watch our lifeline ferry services have been plunged into chaos while the shipbuilding sector slowly collapses.
“Instead of weakly parroting their scripted lines, SNP MSPs should stand up for their constituents for once and call the government out on their catastrophic failures.
“The SNP pretend to talk tough on completing these vessels but don’t provide any timescales. It’s time Ministers who own the yard took responsibility and ruled out any further delays.”
Scottish Tory MSP Graham Simpson said: “The SNP have their heads in the sand trying to ignore the catalogue of disasters at Ferguson Shipyard.
“The SNP cannot continue to ignore the failings at Ferguson and the implications these will have on skilled shipbuilding jobs in the Clydeside.”
The SNP declined to comment.
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