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

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.