Sir Keir Starmer pledges to save hundreds of jobs at Scotland’s last oil refinery

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to save hundreds of jobs at Scotland’s last oil refinery as he set Labour’s sights on defeating the SNP at the next Holyrood election.

The Prime Minister, who travelled to Edinburgh on Sunday for his first official engagement since his historic landslide win, said he was “very concerned” at the situation at the Grangemouth plant and revealed work had already begun on a rescue plan.

The operator of Grangemouth, Petroineos, has warned operations at the refinery could cease as early as next year, which would result in the loss of at least 400 jobs.

The refinery, part of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos empire, produces 215,000 barrels per day and is seen as vital to UK infrastructure.

Closure ‘of great concern’

Should it close, Scotland would become the only major oil-producing country in the world not to have its own oil-refining capacity.

Sir Keir revealed his new government had already begun discussions about Grangemouth’s future, saying the refinery’s threatened closure was “of great concern”.

He described saving jobs as a “real priority for me” and pledged to ensure the plant had a prosperous future.

The pledge came as Sir Keir vowed to usher in a new era of cooperation with the Scottish Government, even as he said “part two” of Labour’s resurgence was to take power at Holyrood in 2026 from the SNP.

Labour returned 37 MPs at last week’s election, while the SNP has plummeted to just nine leading to bitter nationalist infighting.

“We will also start more immediately with discussions about Grangemouth, which is obviously a source of great concern to me, in terms of what steps we can now take to preserve jobs and ensure the future,” Sir Keir said.

“So there are immediate steps we can take that will make a big difference to people’s lives. I won’t go into the detail but obviously, I’m very concerned about the situation at Grangemouth.

“I’m now the Prime Minister. It’s my duty to do what I can to ensure that jobs are preserved and that the future is good, as I’m sure it can be. I won’t go into the details but it is a real priority for me.”

Discussions

Anas Sarwar, the leader of Scottish Labour, said he had already held discussions with Ed Miliband, the new energy secretary, about Grangemouth.

Under current plans, Petroineos intends to turn the site into a fuels import terminal. The refinery supplies much of Scotland and northern England’s petrol and diesel.

However, Ineos has previously said Labour’s plans to ban new oil and gas projects in the North Sea pose a further threat to Grangemouth’s future.

There is an adjacent petrochemical and plastics plant at the site, which relies on oil and gas from the North Sea for energy and raw materials. It is fed by a direct pipeline linking it to 80 of the UK’s offshore oil and gas fields.

Labour won three seats unexpectedly in the Grangemouth region, including Falkirk, which was previously the SNP’s safest seat in Scotland.

Mr Sarwar told journalists: “I had a detailed conversation with Ed Miliband this morning, who really quickly wants to move on pulling people together around the issue at Grangemouth, as well as get cracking to deliver GB Energy.  He’s on it, he genuinely cares about it.”

Sir Keir told an audience of jubilant Labour activists and several of his new Scottish MPs that he would immediately start “delivering for Scotland”.

He said his election win last Thursday was “part one” of Labour’s resurgence and that “part two comes in 2026” with the next Scottish Parliament elections.

However, he declined to attack the SNP and its beleaguered leader John Swinney. The Prime Minister has vowed to “reset the relationship between the Westminster government and the Scottish Government” and hand SNP ministers a “genuine seat at the table”.

Meanwhile, a former senior advisor to Alister Jack, who until the election was Scottish Secretary, said the SNP would risk a backlash from voters if it continued to “foment phoney grievances” with the UK Government in an effort to boost support for independence.

Writing in The Telegraph, Magnus Gardham, a former special adviser in the Scotland Office, said the scale of Labour’s victory in Scotland had “dramatically changed the political dynamics between the UK and Scottish governments.”

He claimed that any attempt to stoke division with “gripe and grievances” would be exploited by Labour and boost Anas Sarwar’s chances of winning the next Holyrood election, which is just 22 months away.

“The vast bulk of the Tories’ time in power pitted a UK Government that was unpopular in Scotland against a Scottish Government that was wildly popular,” Mr Gardham said.

“It was easy for the SNP to do what they enjoy best: generate friction and foment phoney grievances as a means to drive support for independence.

“It will be far harder for them to pursue the same approach with a Labour Government that has proved its popularity in Scotland by gubbing them in an election. The SNP’s moans will get much shorter shrift than they once did.”

Starmer in Scotland more about ‘laying down the law’ over the appearance of civility

By Magnus Gardham

Sir Keir Starmer’s tour of the UK nations, starting in Scotland on Sunday, is a smart move.

Going all the way back to David Cameron’s “respect agenda”, Conservative leaders understood the importance of positive, constructive relations with the devolved administrations in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

Everyone knows that everyone wants their two governments to work together, to set aside political differences and to Get Things Done.

In practice it often proved difficult to forge a strong working relationship between a UK Government and a Scottish Government that did not want to be in the UK. But co-operation or, failing that, the appearance of it remained the goal.

I suspect the new Prime Minister’s meeting with John Swinney in Edinburgh was about more than just the optics.

Of course, the official post-talks communique would not reflect it but I would be amazed if Sir Keir did not take the opportunity – ever so respectfully – to lay down the law to the Nationalist Scottish Government.

This may come as a surprise to the so-called muscular Unionists in the Conservative Party who feared an incoming Labour Government would bend over backwards to accommodate all manner of demands from the SNP.

They feared – and still fear – a combination of naïveté and eagerness to please would see Labour appease the Nats rather than challenge them.

Labour’s electoral coalition, after all, is built on the votes of many independence supporters who have not signed up for an all out assault on a party they backed as recently as the 2021 Holyrood election.

Sir Keir’s talk of giving the Scottish Government “a genuine seat at the table” will have done nothing to ease the muscular Unionists’ sleepless nights.

But I’m quietly confident they can rest a bit easier. Why? Because the election has dramatically changed the political dynamics between the UK and Scottish governments.

The vast bulk of the Tories’ time in power pitted a UK Government that was unpopular in Scotland against a Scottish Government that was wildly popular.

It was easy for the SNP to do what they enjoy best: generate friction and foment phoney grievances as a means to drive support for independence.

It will be far harder for them to pursue the same approach with a Labour Government that has proved its popularity in Scotland by gubbing them in an election. The SNP’s moans will a get much shorter shrift than they once did.

Consider a couple of gripes that surfaced during the election campaign.

A constant refrain from Mr Swinney was the Tories’ supposed “full frontal attack on devolution” which, to a large extent, was aimed at the post-Brexit UK Internal Market Act.

UKIMA, to apply the compulsory civil service acronym, does two things. It ensures a degree of  regulatory harmony across the UK and it allows the UK Government to spend money directly in Scotland on devolved policy areas such as transport or the arts.

This is perfectly sensible, which means it is anathema to the SNP and, sure enough, Mr Swinney demanded during the election that a new Labour government repeal the Act.

Did he repeat it on Sunday? If so the Prime Minister might well have choked on his tea and shortbread as he struggled to suppress a guffaw.

His new Scottish Secretary, Ian Murray, has already spoken of the Scotland Office becoming a “spending department” (a significant step that would complete what was unfinished business for his predecessor Alister Jack) and expanding the current £3 billion programme of direct UK Government spending in Scotland.

Both men know they need not pander to the SNP and have discreetly signalled as much.

As for Mr Swinney, I’m sure he gets that the goalposts have moved. It is why, in his election defeat speech on Friday, he gritted his teeth and embraced future cooperation.

The political threat hanging over him is clear. 

Gripe and grievance from the SNP would provoke a simple response from Sir Keir: “We’ve tried our best but these guys really are impossible to work with. What Scotland needs is different government at Holyrood.”

Which is exactly what Anas Sarwar will want to be saying in the run-up to the Scottish election now less than two years away.

Magnus Gardham was special adviser to former Secretary of State for Scotland Alister Jack