SCOTLAND’S three largest cities are on course to fight it out to be the home of Labour’s flagship public energy company.
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has narrowed the options for where GB Energy (GBE) will be headquartered to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, according to The Times.
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The decision to trim down the field will be a disappointment to Greenock and the Highlands, where multiple business leaders had called for the firm to be based.
Speculation had also mounted about the prospects of Grangemouth after Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, said that saving jobs in the area was a top priority with its oil refinery slated for closure.
The Times reports that Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is understood to favour Aberdeen and has been lobbying Miliband and Starmer for the company to be based in the North-east.
This would help Labour politically in the city, where it had lost significant support to the SNP and the Conservatives which hit a low point when the party suspended all of its councillors in a row over forming a local administration with the Tories.
