Ed Miliband was subjected to a jaw-dropping tirade as one of his own Labour backbenchers condemned him over a “catastrophic” decision. Scottish MP Brian Leishman tore into the Cabinet minister on the day that Grangemouth oil refinery shut its doors for good.
The move, affecting Mr Leishman’s constituency, means Scotland now has no oil refineries left and all fuel needed in Scotland must be imported. Taking to the Commons, Mr Leishman described the news as “industrial vandalism”. He blasted: “Today is the end of over a century of refining at Grangemouth.”
“Scotland, once again, is a victim of industrial vandalism and devastation.
"I don’t want anyone in this chamber to dare mention a ‘just transition’, because we all know that the Conservatives when they were in power and the SNP currently in Holyrood did nothing to avert this catastrophic decision happening.
“I put it to the Secretary of State: the Labour leadership in the General Election campaign said they would step in and save the jobs at the refinery.”
He concluded with two simple questions: “What has changed? And why have we not done the sensible thing for Scotland’s energy security?”
Mr Miliband appeared taken aback by the MP’s passion but insisted the Labour Government has put money in to help Grangemouth workers.
He told the Chamber: “This Government, as soon as it saw the situation it inherited, put money in to help the workers and has made this huge investment commitment of £200million, working hand-in-glove with the Scottish Government so we absolutely build the future in Grangemouth.
“We look forward to working with him and members across the House to do that.”
Petroineos, which runs the Scottish oil refinery, emailed staff on Tuesday to alert them that work had ended and redundancies have now begun.
The memo said: “With the shutdown of CDU2 today, Grangemouth Refinery will cease processing crude oil and the era of refining at Grangemouth comes to an end.
“For over 100 years, the name Grangemouth has been synonymous with the refining industry, but the world has changed and the market in Scotland has been unable to support a refinery.”
The SNP Government in Holyrood has called for the refinery to be nationalised, something the UK Government has rejected.
