Brian Leishman, Labour’s candidate for the Alloa and Grangemouth general election seat, this week spelled out why it was vital to Grangemouth and, importantly, the rest of Scotland, to save Grangemouth Refinery.
The meeting, held in Grangemouth on Saturday (May 11th) was chaired by Provost Robert Bissett with four speakers, Brian himself, Central Scotland Labour MSP Richard Leonard, Lorna Robertson from Unite the Union and Tam Rafferty, a refinery worker.
Brian thanked the many people who had turned out for the meeting, including Labour and independent councillors, workers and local residents.
He pointed out that community engagement is vital, and later expressed disappointment that other parties had not attended, unwilling to make this a community-wide effort.
This is Brian’s speech:
I think a little bit of history is relevant, the Grangemouth Refinery started operating in 1924 and Grangemouth was the ideal location with the docks supporting the importing of crude oils from the Middle East, the abundant availability of flat land and crucially a skilled workforce was already here, one that had experience of shale oil refining.
With this being the centenary year it really should be a time of great celebration. However, it’s been announced that refining oil in Grangemouth is to stop, possibly as soon as next year with the refinery being converted into a fuels import terminal – importing petrol, diesel, aviation fuel and kerosene into Scotland from ships arriving via the
Firth of Forth. If this change in operations happen then the consequences will be drastic. But unlike the complex processes of what it takes to refine oil, the consequences will be easy
to understand. Firstly, if Grangemouth stops refining, then 400 jobs will be lost. These jobs are skilled, well paid and filled largely by local people.
There then becomes the stark reality that these local workers would need to leave Grangemouth for work meaning many families also leaving the area.
Stopping refining also means an end to job opportunities for future apprenticeships here in Grangemouth as the refinery simply wouldn’t be an option for young people to gain well paid employment.
So, while 400 job losses is the figure that is being quoted, when we consider the wider supply chain then job losses will run into the thousands.
Then, the impact of not refining would be felt enormously in the local
Grangemouth economy. Grangemouth is like other Scottish towns – the retail offering has taken a relentless hammering. In a failing economy like we have things get harder and harder for small businesses.
Forget politicians telling you about GDP bounceback or that the economy is recovering, I even heard on the news this week that apparently the UK is out of recession.
But if you really want to know how the economy is performing, then go for a walk round the Precinct, count the empty units, look at what shops are closing.
For if the refinery closes, then footfall for the small local businesses that are fighting to keep Grangemouth town centre alive will decrease even further. The cafes, the restaurants, the pubs will all have less custom because locals will have less money to spend or those people that used to work at the refinery will have left the area.
It would also be dreadful for the hotels, the bed and breakfasts, the guest houses because there would be no more contractors. An end to people from all over the UK that come to work on the refinery and put their money into the Grangemouth economy.
When we turn our attention to the environmental impact stopping refining would have, then it’s not as simple as saying that the environment will be better if refining stops.
Because there has been no assessment of the emissions from shipping, for the import of finished fuel products into Grangemouth refinery, or of the difference in emissions between importing finished oil products and crude oil. The UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero has admitted that.
The products that will come into Grangemouth, whether as a refinery or as a fuels import terminal will still need to come. We will still store the same products that are currently being manufactured at the refinery.
For our planets future we all know that other industries are needed. But these other industries are just not ready yet. The workforce is not ready yet.
There can be no denying there will continue to be demand for refinery products until these alternative industries do come on stream. For a long time.
And let’s make no mistake, by turning Grangemouth into a fuels storage and transfer depot then we are taking an incredible gamble with our country’s energy security.
Every day, in the papers and on TV we see wars and conflict in Europe and the
Middle East. Recently, we have seen global logistics and supply chain routes be at the mercy of a pandemic, of acts of terrorism, the changing of trade agreements and extreme weather that is becoming more and more common.
The need for self-sufficiency has arguably, never been greater.
It would be very easy to think of volatility and issues in far flung places around the globe as being somewhere else, that it won’t affect us, but that’s not right.
Newspapers reported that when the refinery relied on diesel imports that there were fuel shortages at the pumps in Falkirk and Grangemouth.
So, if the refinery stops then WHO will be producing the oil that Scotland needs? HOW will we get it? WHAT if we don’t?
These are big questions. And we all know that questions sometimes get less than honest answers from politicians, sometimes they don’t even get answered at all!
But the truth should still be fashionable.
The Scottish Government claimed that they found out about the potential closure of the refinery on the 21st November 2023 – the same day that refinery workers did but
that’s a lie. A Freedom Of Information request revealed a letter dated in April 2022 from the Cabinet Secretary for Energy at the time, the LOCAL Falkirk West MSP Michael Matheson to the Petroineos CEO referring their meeting in February 2022 where the potential closure of the refinery and conversion to an oil terminal WAS discussed.
The local SNP MSP and his government did NOT share this information with refinery workers or Unite, the union that represents them.
The excuse of Energy being a reserved matter for Westminster and that the Scottish Governments hands are tied is both feeble and misleading.
Elected representatives regardless of whatever parliament they sit in should be duty bound to represent their constituency interests and those of the people that live and work in it.
And for THAT inaction Michelle Thomson MSP and Martyn Day MP are also guilty.
The truth is that Grangemouth and the refinery workers have been abandoned by both Holyrood and Westminster Governments.
The Tories and their Scottish Secretary Alister Jack also haven’t met with the workers who face losing their jobs or Unite.
With this lack of interest, the Conservatives have turned their back on the refinery workers and this community. And to add insult the Tory Government Minister for Energy Security Graham Stuart is so ignorant of his brief that he thought the refinery was unprofitable and to quote him…
“The Conservative Government don’t feel helping Grangemouth is value for money and that any questions would be better directed to the Scottish Government.”
But the Tory government didn’t think giving £600 million as a loan guarantee to Ineos for a new plant in Belgium to be a waste of money. Money for Antwerp, not for Grangemouth.
The refinery workers and the entire Grangemouth community are being shunted from pillar to post with neither government wanting to take responsibility.
And as for the notion that the refinery isn’t profitable, that just is not true. The accounts show that last year the refinery made £107 million. But the story from Petroineos, willingly backed up by both governments is that the refinery must close for commercial reasons.
The parallels of what is going on here in Grangemouth with what went on with the mining industry 40 years ago are obvious.
Because the inequalities that we see every day are a product of deindustrialisation.
The degeneration of once vibrant places where well paid employment and things to do have been replaced by a low wage economy and escalating poverty.
Having a rich company that exploits the natural resources of the area, that uses the workers to generate incredible wealth and then discards them, leaving a community devastated as they up sticks and move on is an all too familiar tale.
For years, Grangemouth has seen its industrial base be removed piece by piece.
This has to stop.
In conclusion, I want to make my position clear. I have supported the Keep Grangemouth Working campaign from the outset and I will continue to do so as the Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Alloa and Grangemouth.
I recognise the importance of the refinery to Grangemouth and all of Scotland, the refinery’s life needs to be extended.
I believe that the infrastructure and workforce need to be invested in and that means making Grangemouth home for the greener industries of the future, having Grangemouth become the site for a clean Industrial Cluster that sees Low Carbon Technologies like Hydrogen, Bioenergy and Clean Electricity aswell as Carbon Capture Storage.
And then that leads to us having a PROPER TRANSITION. One that of course looks after our environment, but also looks after workers AND their communities.
The lessons of what happened to the mining industry and their communities MUST be learned. And not repeated.
Because if the refinery closes, then the impact will be felt far beyond Grangemouth, it will reverberate around all of Scotland.
We cannot and must not let that happen.
We must Keep Grangemouth Working.