Politicians will face ‘voters wrath’ over Grangemouth – Daily Business

A trade union leader today warned John Swinney and Anas Sarwar that they would face the “wrath” of voters after “breaking their promises” to the Grangemouth community.

Petroineos, the joint venture between Ineos and PetroChina, announced the end of a century of operations at the UK’s oldest oil refinery.

First Minister Mr Swinney described it as a “very sad day” but said it was not too late for the UK government to step and save the site.

However, most of the 430 workers have already accepted enhanced voluntary redundancy terms and the site will be inactive, pending private sector investors bringing new ventures to the area.

Unite Scottish secretary Derek Thomson said political leaders had “utterly failed” the workers and the Grangemouth community.

“John Swinney and [Scottish Labour leader] Anas Sarwar will face the wrath of voters for their broken promises to the workers and the people of Grangemouth,” he said.

“Anas Sarwar pledged hundreds of millions to save the refinery and to fund a transition to renewable industries under a Labour government.

“Instead, not one job will be saved at the refinery, not one job will be created for years by Project Willow, and not one penny of the £200m National Wealth Fund can be unlocked without private investment.”

Iain Hardie, regional head of legal and external affairs for the company, confirmed the end of oil refining.

He said: “Petroineos has invested £50m in creating a modern import and distribution terminal capable of receiving finished fuels by sea for onward distribution to customers around the country.

“From today, we will be importing all the products necessary to meet Scotland’s demand for transport fuels.”

About 70 refinery staff will remain to work on the new business.

The Scottish and UK governments jointly funded the Project Willow report into the options for the site and it identified nine viable projects in the green energy sector.

During the Scottish Labour party conference in February Sir Keir Starmer pledged £200m from the National Wealth Fund to help the transition to new industries. However, this will only be used to support private sector investment. The SNP government has allocated £25 million to establish a Grangemouth Just Transition Fund.

In a presentation to the Scottish Affairs Committee in the House of Commons earlier this month, Mr Hardie said the Tory and SNP governments had known for five years about the mounting losses at Grangemouth and its likely closure but had chosen not to invest in the plant.

Only since the recently proposed nationalisation of British Steel have SNP Cabinet members called for a similar response for Grangemouth.

Today at the STUC gathering in Dundee, Mr Sarwar said the SNP had “turned a blind eye to the running down of the Grangemouth refinery”. He said Labour had pledged “£200m to secure the future of Grangemouth”.  

Commenting on today’s announcement from Petroineos, Mr Swinney shifted the blame to the UK government. He said: “This is a very sad day for Grangemouth, and for the country more generally – with the end of refining in Scotland after a century.

“We have said all along that this decision was premature, fundamentally short-sighted and detrimental to the transition to net zero. Our calls for the UK Government to step in and try and maintain operations have gone unheeded so far.

“But UK Ministers could still act – just as they did at Scunthorpe.  At the very least, they need to act to secure the site’s future, as interventions of this magnitude would require action from the UK Government.

“We need to know and understand what assets are there at the refinery that could potentially be used to help Grangemouth contribute to our net zero economy in the future.

“But today is fundamentally about reassuring everyone employed at the refinery and in supply businesses, that they have a future. Their skills are valued and we want them to stay, to live and work here in Scotland. 

“That is why we have provided up to £450,000 for a skills intervention which is being delivered by Forth Valley College to help retrain and upskill affected workers.

“That will enable them to progress to the sort of new jobs that will be created through the Project Willow proposals and other opportunities across the Grangemouth cluster.”