Mackay urged to face MSPS over Ferguson loan claims
Calls are growing for shamed former finance secretary Derek Mackay to answer allegations that he planned to nationalise the Port Glasgow shipyard Ferguson Marine when he approved a £30 million loan two years ago.
Mackay gave the green light to the loan in 2018 and told MSPS it was to enable the shipyard to “diversify” and attract other work.
However, yesterday the Scottish conservatives said “bombshell revelations” in a newspaper showed there was a “secret agenda” to take the company into public ownership with a “right to buy” attached to the loan and Mr Mackay should be forced to answer questions in Parliament.
The MSP for Renfrewshire North and West has not been in Holyrood since he resigned in February from the SNP Government after he was revealed to be sending inappropriate messages to a 16-year-old boy.
The shipyard on the Clyde was taken over by the Government last year amid an ongoing row over a £97 million ferry contract with Calmac to build two ships. Entrepreneur Jim Mccoll’s Clyde Blowers bought Ferguson’s out of administration in 2014 before asking for the government loan.
Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Graham Simpson said yesterday: “Derek Mackay must explain to Parliament if he knew all along that the company was in trouble but instead misled MSPS and willingly handed over more public money. The SNP Government has many questions to answer here – it’s time Derek Mackay actually turned up to the Scottish Parliament and faced the music.”
The Scottish Government said two loans to Ferguson Marine were on “commercial terms” to provide working capital and added: “Parliament was advised of the loans and full information on them is publicly available.”