We must urge RBS to re-think closures

Last week saw the unwelcome announcement by the Royal Bank of Scotland of a widespread branch closure programme that will have a severe impact locally, and pressure must be put on them to think again.

Communities in the Clackmannanshire and Dunblane Constituency will be hit hard if these closures go ahead, with branches in Alloa, Bridge of Allan and Dunblane facing the axe as well as Bannockburn in the Stirling Constituency. The impact on branch employees could also be severe, and I will be seeking reassurances from the bank over the jobs of the staff affected.

The Scottish Government has called on the UK Government to establish and enforce a guaranteed minimum level of service provision for essential banking services, recognising the importance of continued access to banking for communities and businesses. Given that the taxpayer owns 71 per cent of RBS, what better opportunity to implement such a measure and protect services for local communities and businesses?

These proposed cuts have the potential to significant impact business customers, local personal customers and visitors. The worst impact would likely be felt by vulnerable customers and those small businesses which are the backbone of our economy, which rely on the services provided by a local branch presence.

The UK Government must take the action necessary to halt or reverse this unwelcome trend of branch closures in order to preserve access to essential banking services, and mitigate the impact of this announcement on the individual customers, communities and businesses affected. It is simply not good enough that many communities across this area should be expected to travel significant distances to access banking services – not least from a bank that had to be bailed out by the taxpayer a decade ago and which remains 71 per cent owned by them to this day.

The cumulative loss of banking services should these proposed closures proceed is simply unacceptable to local communities and businesses, and the UK Government has a responsibility to act now to prevent the loss of these important services.

Another of the UK Government’s responsibilities is to salvage a common sense deal on Brexit which maintains access to the single market for our businesses and protects jobs. Despite the fudged deal on phase one, nobody can be in any doubt whatsoever about the complete disarray that exists in Whitehall over this issue.

The performance of the UK Government in negotiating the Brexit that Scotland democratically rejected has been a humiliating spectacle for those involved so far, and Northern Ireland’s ten Democratic Unionist Party MPs have the whip hand. The Tory government is taking the UK towards economic catastrophe through withdrawal from the single market and the customs union, with damaging hard Brexit plans that would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and hit people’s incomes, livelihoods and living standards for decades to come.

Short of retaining our EU membership, the only way to protect jobs, incomes, and workers’ rights is to remain in the single market and customs union – that is by far the best compromise and the least damaging option. This approach needs crossparty support from opposition parties, especially Labour, and Jeremy Corbyn and his party must put partisan politics aside and join this effort.

The Scottish government, Welsh government, SNP and Labour Party recently had success when they joined forces on the EU Withdrawal Bill. With phase two of the Brexit negotiations upcoming, it is now more important than ever that opposition parties work together and focus efforts on retaining our place in the single market in order to protect the economy and safeguard jobs.