Edinburgh Labour calls for cross-party response to Remploy closures

Sarah Boyack MSP recently
visited the Edinburgh Remploy factory

The sudden decision yesterday to close 4 Remploy factories in Scotland, including one in Edinburgh which employs 28 staff of whom 27 are disabled, has been condemned as "deeply callous" by Edinburgh Labour.

The factories in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Wishaw and Springburn were announced for closure with reports that staff were not even told beforehand. A further four sites in Scotland are identified for “further consideration”.

Scottish Labour figures were quick to condemn the decision, and the way it was made.


Ian Murray, Labour MP for Edinburgh South said:

"I am absolutely appalled at the way in which the Government have announced this decision. Ministers have shown a complete disregard for some of the most vulnerable workers in Edinburgh."

Anne McGuire, MP for Stirling and Labour’s Shadow Minister for Disabled People, said:

"The Welfare Reform Bill has been law for just a week, and the Government’s first callous act is to throw hundreds of disabled people straight on the dole. Four Remploy factories in Scotland will now be shut and over 100 staff given just £2,500 to help them get another job, with no guarantees about the factories that are spared."


Leading figures from the trades unions movement, disability rights groups and other political parties have also condemned this shameful attack on the most vulnerable in our society. Edinburgh Labour is calling for co-operation between all these groups and parties to stand together against this shameful, self-defeating betrayal.