Labour ‘will fund welding centre’ after SNP snub – Daily Business

Defence Secretary John Healey has pledged that the UK Labour government will step in if the SNP continues to block a £2.5 million grant for a specialist welding centre in Glasgow.

Specialist equipment worth £11m was set to be provided by Rolls-Royce which would have helped boost Scottish shipbuilding. 

However, a key grant on the project is at risk due to a SNP ban on “munitions” funding.

Rolls-Royce, which is ready to support the project by providing £11m worth of specialist equipment, expressed “dismay” at the decision by Scottish Enterprise, the government’s economic development agency, to refuse the grant.

The company said the project had been classified as a “munitions” scheme solely on the basis that it would “support the construction of naval vessels”. Rolls-Royce has publicly disputed that it is in any way a “munitions” business.

Steve Carlier, president of submarines at Rolls-Royce, warned John Swinney, the First Minister, that the project “cannot continue” without the public funding and is at risk of being formally cancelled within days.

Mr Healey said: “National security is the first duty of government, which is why we’re supporting and strengthening the defence sector as part of the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change.

“This is a massive industrial opportunity for Scotland, to provide good, skilled jobs for working class kids.

“It’s outrageous the SNP is blocking a key grant to establish a specialist welding centre in Glasgow. 

“That’s why, if the SNP continue to block this grant, the UK Labour government will step in and fund it – we won’t walk by on the other side when the opportunity is there to back Scottish jobs and industry.”

In a further embarrassment for the Scottish government, one of the partners in the welding centre is the University of Strathclyde whose principal and vice-chancellor, Prof Sir Jim McDonald, is stepping down to become chairman of Scottish Enterprise. Rolls-Royce sponsors the university’s technology centre.

The other partner in the welding centre is the Malin Group, which is behind plans for a Scottish Marine Technology Park, which it is hoped will bring “world leading innovators in the marine industry” back to Glasgow.

Commenting on the Rolls-Royce funding decision, a spokesman for Scottish Enterprise said: “We were approached about a defence related project. The Scottish government and its agencies do not support the manufacture of munitions.”

The Scottish National Investment Bank also refuses to invest in firms which “are primarily engaged in the manufacture of munitions or weapons”.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The Scottish Government’s long-standing policy position is that it does not support the manufacture of munitions.”