A Scotland Office minister has accused the SNP of “manufacturing grievance” over calls for the UK Government to save the Grangemouth oil refinery.
Kirsty McNeill said the situation at Grangemouth is different to the steelmaking plant at Scunthorpe, after emergency legislation was passed at the weekend to keep the British Steel site open.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has already called on the UK Government to act to secure the future of the Grangemouth complex.
Labour MP Brian Leishman, who represents Alloa and Grangemouth, has also called for UK ministers to act.
Now do the same for the workers of Grangemouth and our communities.
— Brian Leishman (@BrianLeishmanMP) April 13, 2025
Intervene, extend the life of the refinery until the new energy industries are ready and then you will have stood by Scotland by safeguarding our fuel and national security. @GrangemouthJobs @UniteEconomy https://t.co/pcCRDsF82S
Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme, Ms McNeill said the UK Government had secured more than £200 million for the future of Grangemouth, saying the circumstances there cannot be compared to the steel industry.
She said: “These situations are different, which is why this interventionist UK Government has an industrial strategy that matches solutions to the problems at hand.”
Without emergency action for British Steel, she said, there was a risk of the Scunthorpe blast furnaces going out forever.
The Labour minister said the SNP-run Scottish Government had been slow to tackle problems at Grangemouth, where owner Petroineos says the refinery is loss-making.
Ms McNeill said: “I would contrast the speed with which they can take to social media and take to the airwaves to air their grievances and the speed at which they move to secure Scottish jobs.”
She also defended the Labour’s approach to Grangemouth, saying he previous Tory administration and the Scottish Government had “no industrial strategy to speak of”.
Ms McNeill said: “In the end, they’re having a conversation about Grangemouth today because they’re manufacturing a grievance.
“We, by contrast have taken serious action from the minute we got in (office) in July.”
