Gordon Brown: Remploy factories can be saved

Former prime minister Gordon Brown said there was no reason why two factories that employ disabled people should be closed, as he claimed eight potential buyers had come forward.

Mr Brown, the MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, has been spearheading a campaign to save the closure-threatened Remploy factories in Fife. He and fellow Labour MP Lindsay Roy put forward a business plan for the sites at a meeting with Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and Scottish enterprise minister Fergus Ewing on Wednesday.

Following that, the two Labour politicians said eight possible new owners – six private buyers and two social enterprises – had come forward and expressed an interest in taking over the sites at Leven and Cowdenbeath.