The Scottish Government has serious questions to answer over their dealing with the company that owns the Lochaber smelter.
That’s according to Highlands and Islands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston who questioned SNP Minister Richard Lochhead on the subject this afternoon,
Mr Halcro Johnston, the Scottish Conservatives Shadow Business Minister, was speaking after The Financial Times newspaper won a near two-year freedom of information battle with the Scottish Government to finally reveal public money was being used to cover guarantees to owners GFG Alliance of £586m. Mr Halcro Johnston said “The smelter is a vital local employer, but workers at the facility have experienced real uncertainty over recent years."
“Thousands of new jobs were promised as part of the proposals that supported Scottish Government guarantees to GFG Alliance, but those plans were then amended and, so far, only a small fraction have been created. After The Financial Times revealed the struggle it had to uncover the full financial exposure of the Scottish Government to GFG’s operations, legitimate concerns have been raised about the transparency of these deals."
“And we still don’t know what the Scottish Government’s own expectations now are for jobs at the site. We’ve certainly not seen anywhere close to the 2,000 that were suggested. Over half a billion pounds of public money has been exposed by the Scottish Government, and so it disappointing that the minister failed to provide clear answers despite being given ample opportunities during today’s session."
“I asked him three questions about the SNP’s lack of transparency over dealings with GFG Alliance and the publicly-funded guarantees relating to the Lochaber smelter. And with the taxpayer financially exposed in this way, surely the Minister should have been able to tell me, at the very least, how many new jobs they now expect to be delivered."
“But the Minister was unable, or unwilling, to answer even one of them. That is not transparent, not accountable, and local people deserve better."
“This issue is not going away and the SNP need to provide a much fuller account of the Scottish Government’s dealings, and why the promised thousands of jobs have failed to materialise.”
Jamie Halcro Johnston’s exchange with Richard Lochhead can be viewed at (from: 14:32:15) at: Meeting of the Parliament | Scottish Parliament TV
The Financial Times report is available here: Scottish government guarantee to Sanjeev Gupta was £586m | Financial Times (ft.com)
