Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 02 December 2020
In speaking to this motion for the Scottish Labour Party, I want to make clear that Scotland can and should be a key player in Europe and the world when it comes to the green energy revolution over the coming decades. We should be setting out the opportunities for high-skill, high-wage jobs. Our young people should be guaranteed a bright future through high-quality education, skills and training that gives them a secure and prosperous future in a Scotland that leads the way when it comes to tackling the greatest threat to their future—climate change.
For that to happen, politicians and Government need to have the political will, the determination and the willingness to stand up for Scotland. Sadly, on all fronts, the Scottish National Party Government is failing. Nowhere is that failure more exposed than in the sorry tale of BiFab. The SNP in Parliament has made a career out of blaming anyone and everyone to avoid taking responsibility for its failures. True to form, it is now blaming the Canadians who formed a partnership with it to rescue the Scottish yards.
Let us look at the facts. In 2017, JV Driver, at the invitation of the Scottish ministers, advised the Scottish Government during its financial intervention to save BiFab. That progressed into an acquisition discussion between the Scottish ministers and JV Driver that occurred over the course of several months. The company has stated publicly that, in the final purchase discussions and agreements, it was always envisaged that the Scottish Government would be the primary financer of the business as it recovered from the Beatrice wind farm project and pursued new contracts.
Therefore I suggest that it is a red herring for the cabinet secretary to blame the company for a lack of investment. It is equally a red herring to blame the company for the lack of a long-term business plan.