First minister John Swinney has been accused of politicising Grangemouth after calling the decision to national British Steel and not the Scottish oil refinery anti-Scottish.
Swinney endorsed comments made by SNP MP Dave Doogan, who said that because Grangemouth was in Scotland, the UK government was “very much less keen to help” and “happy to see it wither”.
But, The Times points out, the Scottish government had not pushed for nationalisation of Grangemouth until this weekend, and Swinney conceded his government could not afford to take over the plant, reported to be losing £380,000 per day.
Swinney has now insisted that if British Steel could be nationalised, Grangemouth should have been as well.
The Times reports Michael Shanks, an energy minister and the MP for Rutherglen, said Scottish government officials had failed to bring up the prospect of nationalisation for Grangemouth despite meeting "dozens of times" with UK government counterparts.
He added: “It’s unfortunate that presumably for political reasons that position has suddenly changed after redundancies have been confirmed.
“We’ve committed £200million to attract investors to deliver a future for Grangemouth. This risks creating a far from favourable investment climate. I’d urge others to decide what they want their own role to be: political game-playing or the serious work to deliver a practical, deliverable future for Grangemouth.”