Westminster ‘sleepwalking into’ Scottish deindustrialisation – Stephen Flynn

Westminster is “sleepwalking into the deindustrialisation of Scotland”, Stephen Flynn has warned, as he clashed with a minister over the closure of ExxonMobil’s Fife plant.

The SNP Commons leader criticised the Government’s decision not to step in, as the Fife Ethylene Plant winds down.

Energy and business minister Chris McDonald indicated the Government is not prepared to keep the site open.

ExxonMobil announced its ethylene manufacturing plant, which produces the base material for many plastics, is expected to close in February, after having “considered various options to continue production and tested the market for a potential buyer”.

Mr McDonald said in a snap statement he had spoken to ExxonMobil UK chairman Paul Greenwood, and the company had told him the plant was inefficient and would need nearly £1 billion spent on it to make it profitable.

Mr Flynn told the Commons he had also spoken to Mr Greenwood and continued: “Whilst the minister is arguing that this has nothing to do with their policy in respect of the North Sea, that was certainly not what was conveyed to me, which I’m sure the minister will clarify from the despatch box.

“But before he does, he’s also said that Exxon are not suggesting that this closure was due to a lack of action or will on behalf of the Government.

“Exxon’s statement, meanwhile, says ‘it’s down to the UK’s current economic and policy environment combined with market conditions’.

“So what we have tonight is 400 families knowing that they don’t have certainty over their ability to pay their bills going forward, a whole community impacted as a result of this decision and a UK Government minister who is not being clear with them about the reasons one, why this has happened, and two, why he is not helping them.”

Mr Flynn also said: “We know that they’ve chosen to intervene in Scunthorpe, but they chose again not to do so in Grangemouth, as the member opposite will recall, and he is choosing not to do so now in Mossmorran.

“They are sleepwalking into the deindustrialisation of Scotland.

“This is on them.”

Parliament was recalled on a Saturday earlier this year, when MPs approved ministers’ takeover of the British Steel plant at Scunthorpe, south of the border in North Lincolnshire.

The minister replied ExxonMobil had said the closure was “not due to a lack of action or will on behalf of the Government”, and Mr Flynn shouted “you’re gaslighting the public” from his seat.

Mr McDonald continued: “Where Government has intervened in the past, it has been where there’s been a fundamentally sound business proposition, and I’m sure that (Mr Flynn) – he probably failed to mention it because maybe he’d forgotten – the £200 million commitment the Government has made to Grangemouth, the 100 projects that are lining up behind that in order to support the people in Grangemouth.

“And obviously he didn’t want to welcome that.”

Brian Leishman said the move at Mossmorran was an “all too familiar story – private capital closing industry leaving workers as disposable commodities to be tossed aside and a community devastated”.

He said it was a “carbon copy of what happened” in his Alloa and Grangemouth constituency, where an oil refinery closed in April this year.

“Now, the Government stepped in at Scunthorpe but did not at Grangemouth, and it looks like it won’t at Mossmorran,” the Labour MP said.

“Why not? Because Scotland is once again the victim of chronic deindustrialisation.”

He later added: “For goodness’ sake, let’s have a bit of common sense and take some form of Government ownership in what comes next at Grangemouth.”

Mr McDonald said ministers “think very keenly about these issues in Scotland” but warned there “was not a sound business proposition” to enable an intervention.

“The amount of money that was being asked for by the company and the fundamental lack of profitability of the business over such a long period of time meant that it wasn’t a viable opportunity, and that’s why we need to look forward to how the workforce in Fife and elsewhere can transition into our new green economy,” he said.

Kirsty Blackman, the SNP’s Aberdeen North MP, said some workers in the oil and gas sector had “no faith in this Labour Government” to promote a “just transition” to the green economy.

Mr McDonald replied that “beyond 2030 you can see the clean energies really motoring ahead, but it’s actually these few years that are a really difficult transition where we need to work together”.

Conservative shadow Scottish secretary Andrew Bowie said: “The high cost of energy and the Government’s war on the North Sea is killing industry in this country”.

He added: “Britain cannot afford this Labour Government. Frankly, Scotland cannot afford this Labour Government.

“This is not a just transition, it is anything but a just transition. This is the wilful de-industrialisation of the United Kingdom.”

The Tory frontbencher later said: “We must find a way to decarbonise without decimating our domestic industrial base.”

ExxonMobil said in a statement that the closure “reflects the challenges of operating in a policy environment that is accelerating the exit of vital industries, domestic manufacturing, and the high-value jobs they provide”.

It continued: “We considered various options to continue production and tested the market for a potential buyer, but the UK’s current economic and policy environment combined with market conditions, high supply costs and plant efficiency do not create a competitive future for the site.”