Caroline Flint MP and Margaret Curran MP response to Ineos’ announcement that the Grangemouth petrochemical plant will close

Caroline Flint MP, Labour’s Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary said:

“Grangemouth is vitally important to the UK economy supplying 80% of refined fuel for Scotland, as well as supplying Northern Ireland and the North of England. In addition the Petrochemical plant provides 30% of the ethanol for the UK chemical industry. 
 
“Even now there is still time to get back round the table and negotiate. The UK and Scottish Governments must work together with both parties to do all they can to get Grangemouth working again.”

Margaret Curran MP, Labour’s Shadow Scottish Secretary, said:

“Ineos are turning the clock back on industrial relations in this country. The workers at Grangemouth have been treated terribly. The responsibility of the UK and Scottish Governments now is to come up with a plan to save the plant and the jobs that rely on it. Grangemouth is too important to the Scottish economy, and too important for the hundreds of people employed there, to be allowed to lie idle.

“Now is the time to put political differences aside and join together to get Grangemouth working again. The company now need to take their ultimatums off the table, accept the guarantees given by Unite, and restart the refinery.”