Meeting of the Parliament 19 March 2026 [Draft]
I share Mr Griffin’s concerns. The Deputy First Minister and the Minister for Business and Employment have spoken to the GMB union about the matter and we are establishing discussions with the company about the situation; Scottish Enterprise is already engaged with the business on ministers’ behalf.
The issues that are causing the difficulty here are the trading conditions in which companies are operating. One of the particular issues is the tariffs arrangement with the United States, which, as Mr Griffin will know from my other comments in Parliament, I view as deeply disruptive to the handling of our economy.
I assure Mr Griffin that ministers will continue to engage with the company and the trade unions to try to avoid any redundancies here, because that would be damaging to the manufacturing sector in Scotland. These are very high-quality, sophisticated jobs and we need to keep them.