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Energy minster warns Yes vote could threaten manufacturing in Fife

UK energy minister Michael Fallon toured the Bifab facility in Methil.
UK energy minister Michael Fallon toured the Bifab facility in Methil.

A Yes vote in September’s independencereferendum could jeopardise the future of manufacturing on the Fife coast, the UK’s energy minister has warned.

Michael Fallon MP said that the “Forth was on a roll” and that major engineering projects would be harder to finance should Scotland vote for independence.

The Conservative MP was touring the Bifab facility in Methil, viewing the giant “jackets” being constructed for the North Sea gas industry.

The project has seen the workforce at the Fife Energy Park site rise from 400 to 2,000 and Mr Fallon says he fears such numbers could not be maintained in an independent Scotland.

Speaking to The Courier, he said: “The Forth is on a roll. The revival of manufacturing being led by the Forth is a great thing to see.

“The platform being done here for Cygnus is for an English gas field off the coast of Lincolnshire.

“It’s Scottish jobs for an English gas field but all of it makes Britain more secure and less reliant on Mr (Vladimir) Putin and the Middle East.

“It would be more difficult to finance projects like this with a separate Scotland.

He added: “You get the best of Scottish manufacturing and the UK treasury working together and you would lose that and that’s what really worries me.”

The jackets are set to leave the Bifab site in the coming weeks, while construction of the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier continues along the coast at Rosyth.

Marine industries are major employers in Fife, with Forth Ports recently announcing plans to develop the docks at Burntisland.

Mr Fallon said that as well as large companies, many subsidiaries depended on long-term prosperity.

“If you look around this site we have haulage and other firms from right across the area,” he added.

“Behind the jobs here we have several thousand indirect jobs and all of that is at risk if everything has to be renegotiated.

“There is more work ahead on the offshore windfarms being planned in the Southern North Sea but again, it can only be done and financed on a UK basis. I don’t want to see any pause in investment and that’s why I’m discussing with the management here the securing of further orders.”