‘Embarrassing revelation’ in HIE saga, says McArthur

The saga of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) saw a fresh twist today with Orkney MSP Liam McArthur claiming that HIE senior officials did not believe that cabinet secretary Keith Brown knew what the agency did.

Asked to respond to the claims the Scottish Government said that Mr Brown has made a clear commitment to HIE.

A spokesman said: “The cabinet secretary regularly engages with HIE in addition to people and businesses across the Highlands and Islands, for example he was involved in discussions with Liberty Steel to secure jobs for Fort William.

“Mr Brown has made clear his commitment to HIE and to retaining their key role in the future.  He has also been clear that he will listen carefully to constructive ideas from MSPs and others about how we can support enterprise in the Highlands and Islands.”

According to Mr McArthur today, SNP ministers would be “red faced” after HIE internal communications were released to the Scottish Liberal Democrats under the Freedom of Information Act. These, he said, described Keith Brown as having “little awareness” of HIE’s role, two months after the announcement of the  review he led.

Last month, Scottish Government plans to abolish the HIE board were rejected by MSPs in a Scottish Parliament vote and ministers have yet to confirm they will listen to the will of Parliament.

Mr McArthur said: “This is another embarrassing revelation in the sorry saga that is SNP ministers’ attempts to snatch control of Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

“Keith Brown will be left red-faced by top HIE officials describing him as having ‘little awareness’ of the body he was charged with reviewing. It confirms that instead of bothering to take the time to understand the organisation, he had simply set his sights on centralising it.

He added: “The ‘we know best approach’ of SNP ministers has been well and truly debunked. They need to immediately scrap their plans to abolish HIE.”