Richard Leonard The website of Richard Leonard MSP, Leader of the Scottish Labour Party
5 February 2019
Commenting on reports that Kaiam electronics in Livingston asked the Scottish government to help it to find £760,000 ten days before announcing it had gone into administration, Labour MSP Neil Findlay said:
"This is staggering.
“Kaiam banked over £1million of taxpayer cash and appeared to float the idea of getting hundreds of thousands of pounds more, before making over 300 workers redundant on Christmas Eve.
“This strengthens the case for a Holyrood inquiry into how government grants are handed to business, as it looks like this business has taken Scottish taxpayers for mugs and treated the workforce appallingly in the process.
“Scotland needs a proper industrial strategy to ensure public money is developing local economies, not simply handed to multinationals that cut their losses at the first opportunity."