Salmond 'snubs' Diageo chief to go on TV show

Alex Salmond missed the chance to hold his first face-to-face meeting with Diageo chief executive Paul Walsh by appearing on the Daily Politics show on BBC2 yesterday. During the 90-minute lunchtime programme, in which he was the "guest of the day", he commented on Prime Minister's Questions and selected the winner of a raffle competition.

Mr Walsh had agreed to find a space in his diary before flying to China after a request from the First Minister's office yesterday morning. It is understood he learned the meeting would not take place only 15 minutes before it was due to start.

Diageo last week announced controversial proposals that could mean 900 workers losing their jobs at the Johnnie Walker packaging plant in Kilmarnock and the Port Dundas grain distillery in Glasgow.

Unite Scottish regional secretary John Quigley said: "Alex Salmond has snubbed Scotland. Nine hundred jobs are on the line and a Scottish community faces devastation. Alex Salmond, the self-professed Scottish Nationalist, has turned his back on Scottish workers, Scottish communities and the company to take part in a television raffle.

"This is outrageous behaviour. Diageo's site in Kilmarnock has been in existence since 1820, it has a proud history, and these workers deserve a real First Minister who is prepared to fight their corner."

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray accused Mr Salmond of "political grandstanding", while others claimed he could have undermined a cross-party campaign – launched only a day earlier – to save 700 jobs at the bottling plant in Kilmarnock and 200 in Glasgow, mostly at Port Dundas.

Campaigners have warned that the future of Scotland's entire whisky industry is at stake if such a major player as Diageo begins moves to carry out bottling outwith Scotland.

The controversy over the First Minister deflected attention from Diageo, which Harriet Harman, standing in for Gordon Brown at Prime Minister's Questions, criticised for delivering a "body blow" to Kilmarnock by seeking to sever links with the Ayrshire town that date to 1820.

It also overshadowed Mr Salmond's insistence that he was prepared to use public money to incentivise Diageo to maintain a base in Kilmarnock, and a suggestion from Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy of building Diageo a state-of-the-art bottling plant on a greenfield site in the town.

Seven parliamentary question have been tabled at Holyrood, asking Mr Salmond to account for his actions.

His aides embarked on a damage-limitation exercise, claiming Mr Salmond found out about the opportunity to meet Mr Walsh as he was about to go on air. After initial questions about the incident were raised by The Scotsman, Mr Salmond's aides took three hours to provide an explanation. They claimed his private office had called Diageo after learning Mr Walsh was meeting Mr Murphy – having mistakenly believed the Diageo boss was already in China – to arrange an impromptu meeting. This was said to have been done without Mr Salmond's knowledge. Mr Walsh instead met the SNP's Westminster leader, Angus Robertson.

A meeting has now been set for 22 July, at which Mr Salmond is expected to present options to entice Diageo to stay in Kilmarnock.

The incident has fuelled long-standing criticisms of Mr Salmond – that he is fond of the media limelight, is less enthusiastic about the hard graft of solving complicated issues and finds it easier to provide a soundbite or attend a picture opportunity than answer tough questions.

Mr Gray said: "There are 900 jobs at stake and there is just no place for political grandstanding by Alex Salmond. If he was so keen to meet the Diageo chief executive, he should have fulfilled the appointment instead of sending along someone else.

"It would seem Alex Salmond thought he had got a better offer to appear on television and took that, instead of lobbying on behalf of Diageo workers in Kilmarnock and Glasgow. It is obvious what his priorities are, and not the choice a First Minister should make."

At a Westminster press conference yesterday morning, Mr Salmond accepted that the possible loss of 700 jobs at Kilmarnock would be "cataclysmic" to Ayrshire's economy and Scotland as a whole.

The First Minister, who had spoken to Mr Walsh by phone when Diageo announced its restructuring plans a week ago, said: "Diageo have agreed to consider alternatives being put forward by the joint campaign. We are confident we can present an extremely strong case."

In a statement yesterday, Diageo said: "We can confirm that this morning there was a possibility that we could co-ordinate the diaries of both the First Minister and Paul Walsh to schedule a face-to-face meeting in London. Unfortunately, we were unable to make this happen and instead had a productive meeting with Angus Robertson, MP.

"When Paul Walsh returns from Asia, there will be a meeting with the First Minister to discuss the business rationale behind Diageo's proposed restructuring of its operations in Scotland, by which time the First Minister will have had an opportunity to consider constructive alternatives to the proposals."

Petition to save historic whisky plant signed by 8,000

MORE than 8,000 people have signed petitions demanding that Diageo maintains its historic links with Kilmarnock.

They have demanded that the firm rethinks plans to close its bottling plant.

John Walker first began selling whisky in the town in 1820. Plans are being made to lose one of three bottling plants in Scotland, with Leven in Fife the favourite to survive.

The petition has been led by Kilmarnock Football Club and the town's SNP MSP, Willie Coffey, while campaign posters illustrated by local a cartoonist have been put in shop and house windows across the town.

A paper petition has gathered more than 2,000 signatures while an e-petition has gathered more than 6,000, including some from Australia, Dubai, Canada and the US.

Meanwhile, a Facebook group has attracted more than 2,200 members.

Mr Coffey said: "The whole community has got behind the campaign – no wonder when 700 jobs are at risk and whole families could see their livelihoods devastated. People are shocked at Diageo's disregard for this world-renowned whisky."