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Diageo Closures

I could not have put it better myself. I was hoping to, of course, but I could not have. I want to pose some questions to my right hon. Friend the Minister, and I shall take one more intervention at an appropriate point. About 12 years ago, the local council, East Ayrshire council, Scottish Enterprise and the workers at Kilmarnock, supported by Donald Dewar and Brian Wilson, who were then in the Scotland Office, succeeded in persuading Diageo that that combination of efficiency, loyalty and profitability, embedded in a credible heritage and provenance, which is in the bottle, was a winning combination. Then, Diageo decided not only to continue to bottle whisky in Kilmarnock but to invest in the plant. Then, politicians intervened, and as a consequence Diageo and its Johnnie Walker plant in Kilmarnock have enjoyed a decade of improving markets and greater profitability. It is possible for politicians to make a positive contribution, and that is an example. Little, if anything, has changed since then, and the current proposal has nothing to do with the recession and everything to do with Diageo positioning itself in the global market for the next decade or so, as it is entitled to do. The difference this time is that the company's marketing gurus and desire for more shareholder value have convinced its executives that they can take the risk of breaking the link between the world's best-known Scotch whisky and its history. Furthermore, they must have been prepared to contemplate the disastrous social effects that the decision would have on the community that I represent, which has so loyally served the company for about 200 years, and they must have considered that a price worth paying. I do not believe that it is. Making the case for the company to think again is my job as a politician; it would be a dereliction of my duty not to do now what I did 12 years ago. Thankfully, we are dealing with what in Diageo's own words is a proposal. Its chief executive officer told me to my face that he would listen to an alternative. He has repeated that, both to the First Minister and to the Secretary of State for Scotland—and, no doubt, to the Scottish Affairs Committee. We intend to take him at his word. I am not in the business of peddling false hopes and I realise how difficult this will be, but I am determined that all of us involved in this side of the argument will work together to produce an alternative that is at least as attractive as the proposal that is on the table at present. Scottish Enterprise has accepted the mandate to conduct the assessment of the underlying financial and business plan to enable us to come up with that alternative. The First Minister of Scotland has cast himself in the role of principal interlocutor with Diageo. Yesterday in a meeting in Edinburgh, local politicians and I made it perfectly clear to John Swinney, the Finance Secretary, and his officials and the senior management of Scottish Enterprise, that time is of the essence. Diageo's 90-day consultation clock is ticking, and the unions are already embroiled in consultations. If those consultations are not to become simply an opportunity for the company to justify its proposal, the shape of the alternative must begin to emerge sooner rather than later. When the First Minister meets the chief executive officer of Diageo next week, this story must move on. The campaign is bringing the community that I represent together in a spectacular fashion, but behind closed doors the uncertainty is destroying its confidence in its future. That cannot be allowed to go on. My constituents are very grateful to my right hon. Friend the Minister's Government for the support expressed by my right hon. and learned Friend the Leader of the House at Prime Minister's questions last week. However, on my constituents' behalf I have some messages for the Government and I look forward to hearing the Minister's response. First, the UK Government must stand ready to support, in any way that they can while respecting devolved responsibilities, any alternative proposal that emerges. I repeat that what has happened is not a consequence of recession and the decision is not driven by duty rates on spirits; consequently, the levers that the UK Government hold will be limited. However, as the counter-proposal emerges, and if we need to come for support, my constituents need to know that it will be there. My right hon. Friend the Minister is a fellow Scot and a former adviser to the late Donald Dewar, and he has a long history of appreciation of Scots values and heritage. I do not have to explain to him just how important these historical links are to Scotland's most famous export. Does he share my concern about the facility with which whisky executives now seem to be able to trot out the justifications for not only breaking the link but for moving even more than 20 per cent. of whisky bottling offshore?