THE MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, Andrew Miller, has vowed to fight to save 100 jobs at Shell’s lubricant plant at Stanlow.
Shell informed staff two weeks ago it was reviewing its operations at the Ellesmere Port site, the country’s only producer of the high-grade oils necessary for the defence industry.
The company has indicated this does not mean the plant will close, but it has not launched similar reviews in its other lubricants factories, in Germany and France.
Mr Miller says the loss of Britain’s last Shell manufacturing would be ‘irrational’.
“I am trying to find out what the company’s intention is,” he said.
“It would be a very sad ending if no manufacturing occurred in the UK.
“When they met me they said we will be having discussions with the workforce, we don’t know where it will lead.
“When I met the shop stewards they were of the view this is going to lead to a closure. Nobody has said as much, but they haven’t said the opposite either.
“I’m going to carry on arguing the case. There is a strong argument in favour of maintaining a presence in the UK because they have a significant market in the UK.
“It’s an odd decision to withdraw from manufacturing in the UK especially given the current instability in the Eurozone.
“You’d think companies would want to spread their bets a bit more.
“Their argument was locating in a more central position in the European market.”
Shell has already sold off its last British refinery, also at Stanlow, to India’s Essar Energy in a deal last year worth £814m.
The company announced earlier this year that it is to shut its main research and development base at Thornton, Cheshire, as part of plans to shift its operations to Germany by 2014.
