The first minister’s challenge to anas sarwar on the eve of the budget — scottish national party

Dear Anas, I welcome the response from the Prime Minister to my call last week for the UK Government to provide support for Grangemouth. I know you share my concern that the decision to

close the Grangemouth refinery is premature and fundamentally short sighted and the UK Government’s commitment to additional investment is a step in the right direction. We all have a

responsibility to work collaboratively to secure Grangemouth’s long-term future, its workforce and Scotland’s transition to net zero. My announcement last week that the Scottish Government

will make a further £25 million available to enable businesses to bring forward investable propositions for Grangemouth, will be put to Parliament as an amendment at Stage 3 of the Budget

Bill tomorrow. This funding will be made immediately available from the beginning of the next financial year without requiring match-funding. I hope that when the UK Government provide more

details on the announced £200 million being available through the National Wealth Fund that this will also be available for timely deployment on a similar basis as the funding I have set out

and that these funds align to best support a just transition for Grangemouth. In that spirit of cooperation, I trust that you and Scottish Labour colleagues will now be in a position to

vote for the Budget at Stage 3 tomorrow and work constructively to deliver the nearly £90 million investment for Grangemouth, supporting the jobs, livelihoods and businesses which depend on

it. Yours sincerely, John Swinney