Na h-Eileanan an Iar SNP MSP Alasdair Allan and Deputy First Minister John Swinney MSP earlier today met with both staff and management at the closure-threatened TalkTalk call centre site in Stornoway.

Two weeks ago, the telecoms company announced that it would be making all 59 staff at its site in Stornoway redundant as of July this year. Talktalk are one of the largest private sector employers on the island.

The islands MSP has been in contact with the company, HIE and the Scottish Government since the impending redundancies were first announced, recently raising the issue at First Minister’s Question time.

Alasdair Allan MSP commented:

“This was a good opportunity for the Deputy First Minister and I to hear directly from TalkTalk staff about the unfortunate situation they find themselves in.

“While TalkTalk have guaranteed their employees jobs elsewhere in the company, most people are not going to want to, or be able to, uproot their lives from the island. The loss of nearly 60 jobs is equivalent to the loss of thousands of jobs in Glasgow, so this could have a very significant impact on the local economy.

“It is therefore, imperative that the site and the availability of a skilled and loyal workforce for other potential operators is promoted as much as possible, and I know HIE are actively engaging on that front.”