REFORM UK’s Scottish leader has been blasted for being “completely unaware” of key information about the situation with Alexander Dennis workers.
Malcolm Offord described the bus manufacturer as “going, going, gone” in a Lords debate last month.
But the factory has pledged to keep its Scottish sites open after the Scottish Government committed £4 million to a furlough scheme for staff.
Bosses had previously put forward plans to axe its Larbert and Falkirk sites, with the loss of 400 jobs, and move production to Yorkshire.
But almost three months later, Offord told peers: “I draw noble Lords’ attention to north of the Border, where the Government are responsible for destroying what remains of Scotland’s industrial base.
“Alexander Dennis, Mossmorran, Grangemouth: going, going, gone. Is it time to accept that we need to face the root cause of this deindustrialisation, namely high energy costs and the effects of government green diktats?”
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His comments came just days before he defected to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, becoming the party's first peer. He would subsequently be selected as the party’s leader in Scotland ahead of the Holyrood election.
Falkirk MP Euan Stainbank told The National: “Three days before swanning into to Falkirk to announce his defection to Reform UK last month, Lord Offord of Garvel seemed to be completely unaware that Alexander Dennis over two months earlier had proposed to stay in Falkirk following the workforce and the company striking a hard-won deal.
“At a time where it is critical that we support our Scottish manufacturing sector, Lord Offord of Garvel decided to ignorantly suggest to his ermined colleagues that Alexander Dennis was leaving Scotland in aid of making a partisan party-political point.
“This was without reference to his service in the previous Tory government which decisively failed in its 2021 commitment to fund 4000 zero emission British buses by the end of the last parliament.
“I and many of my Scottish Labour colleagues will instead be talking up our UK bus manufacturing sector at the first debate of this parliament on the UK bus manufacturing sector which I have secured for this coming Tuesday, January 27 at 9.30am.”
Reform were approached for comment.
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