ExxonMobil Chairman Paul Greenwood has directly hit out at Labour over its business-bashing policies. Last night the global energy giant announced plans to close its manufacturing plant in Fife, putting hundreds of jobs at risk…
Greenwood pinned the blame squarely on Labour, saying their policies have stripped the UK of the low-cost operating environment and competitive market conditions needed to keep the site viable. He said on the Today Programme:
“I will be blunt – I have one of those keys to success in place, and that is a brilliant workforce. Two of those keys I deliberately do not have because of Government policy. You know what’s happening in the North Sea, we’ve had windfall taxes, we’ve had a ban on production licences – I need cheap sources of abundant ethane and I do not have them, because the North Sea – because of Government policy – is declining rapidly and that ethane is increasingly high price. I have to have a burden put upon me of CO2 taxes – we paid £20 million last year in CO2 taxes, that will double in the next four or five years. My international competitors do not have those costs. I also have to deal with high energy costs and those kind of things, so these are deliberate Government policies that are undermining us.”
Yesterday GMB Union’s Scotland Secretary Louise Gilmour wrote to Reeves telling her to cut the windfall tax on oil and gas firms -which Reeves increased in the last budget. The Treasury has been briefing that she has been weighing up cutting the levy. Not so hot for Miliband. Something he can reverse when he enters No10…
