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Economy

Scottish banking jobs not safe

Written by Gary Howes

Monday, 27 October 2008

Brown and Darling accused over not guarding HBOS job in Scotland.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) has accused Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown of neglecting the need to maximise jobs and decision making in Scotland in the upcoming merger between HBOS (LON:HBOS) and Lloyds TSB (LON:LLOY).

The accusations were leveled by SNP MSP Alex Neil who cited recent newspaper articles as providing evidence that the Government is not going to use its shareholding in the soon to merge HBOS and Lloyds TSB to ensure Scottish jobs are kept safe.

In yesterday's Sunday Post Gordon Brown failed to offer assurances over jobs saying “That’s a matter for companies to look at.”

Neil said:

“In Edinburgh and Fife the financial services industry and these two banks in particular are important employers.

“When the proposed takeover was first announced, Alistair Darling demanded assurances about jobs in Edinburgh and Scotland, saying he was ‘extremely concerned’ and wanted a ‘significant presence’ to remain here.

“Now that he is in a position to do something about it, he refuses to lift a finger," says Neil.

It was also alleged that a failure of the UK Government which has shareholdings in both banks, to act in Scotland’s interests underlines the dangers of sleepwalking into a takeover without proper consideration of the full implications for Scottish jobs and decision making.

The Scottish Government has gone to great pains to ensure the merger of the two banks would not leave Scotland in a poor position.

Earlier this month Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, invited the the Council of Economic Advisers to support what he described as 'a national effort' to make sure Scotland gets the best possible deal from the proposed HBOS merger with Lloyds TSB.

The First Minister prepares also lead a Scottish Government presentation to Lloyds TSB chairman Victor Blank, setting out the advantages Scotland has to offer companies as a business-base and centre of expertise in financial services, with a wealth of human capital.