The cabinet secretary must know that the rate of unemployment in Grangemouth is already twice the national average and that this is a community that is already impoverished.

The statutory redundancy consultation closes in mid-December, so the clock is ticking, but there is still time to save these jobs. In the coming days, will the economy minister, together with the First Minister, intervene—just as I call on the UK Labour Government to intervene—to avert the redundancies and extend the life of Scotland’s only oil refinery? Will it do so not only in the interests of those workers, their families and this community but in the strategic interests of our country’s economy, energy security and national security?