INVERCLYDE is in the midst of jobs crisis after EE announced their plans to move their call centre from Greenock to Glasgow.

There are over 450 jobs at the workplace and the proposal to move the facility to Glasgow city centre would be yet another hammer blow for our local economy.

It would mean almost 1,000 jobs being lost from the Inverclyde area in the last twelve months alone.

This of course includes Amazon’s decision to leave Gourock last year with the loss of 350 jobs.

Another larger employer potentially leaving Greenock is the last thing the area or local people need in a cost of living crisis.

As covered by the Tele, I challenged the Minister for Fair Work, Gillian Martin MSP, in the Scottish Parliament to do everything in her power to stop the EE group from relocating these jobs.

Inverclyde Council and the Socio-Economic Taskforce have also been calling for Scottish Government to help the local economy and people by providing urgent investment for many months.

I challenged the minister on this very point and asked if the government won’t invest now given the current jobs crisis, when will they?

On the issue of investment and jobs, I also this week challenged the Scottish Government over the future of the Ferguson Marine yard.

The yard has been through a difficult time. There’s a lot of blame to go round for the procurement fiasco - government, agencies and former management - but the one group of people who are blameless are the workforce.

The GMB union are calling for investment in the yard so it can improve efficiencies, win future work and secure a positive future for the yard and its workforce.

They have a plan. It’s time the Scotttish Government backed it and invested in Inverclyde.