Two Highland politicians have written to Andy Burnham demanding a reversal of the decision to deny a proposed £1.5 billion investment in a major wind turbine manufacturing facility in the Highlands.

Inverness and Nairn MSP Emma Roddick and Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey MP Graham Leadbitter have joined the SNP’s growing pressure over the Ming Yang proposal, which the party says could have created 1,500 jobs.

The intervention follows First Minister John Swinney raising the issue directly with Burnham when the two leaders met last month, calling for a reversal of what he described as the “sabotage of Scotland’s industrial future”.

The SNP argues that the decision sits uneasily alongside approval for a series of Chinese backed investments and developments elsewhere in the UK.

The party is also linking the decision to its wider criticism of UK Government energy policy, accusing Labour of mounting what it describes as a “two-pronged attack” on Scotland’s energy industry.

Roddick and Leadbitter are now asking Burnham to reconsider the decision and have set out their argument directly in a joint letter.

Their letter reads in full:

Dear Andy Burnham,

The decision by the UK Labour Government to deny such significant investment in renewables supply chain jobs in the Highlands has been a disaster for Scotland’s energy sector.

Scottish workers watched on as the Labour Party gave carte blanche to a multitude of Chinese backed projects in England, extortionate nuclear power plants, a Chinese super-Embassy, Heathrow Airport as well as power networks and battery sites. Yet when it came to 1500 jobs in the Highlands it was a very different story.

By starving Scotland of the UK’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, you are waging a two-pronged attack on Scotland’s energy sector with your tax on Scotland’s energy destroying 1000 jobs a month and investment in our oil and gas industry too.

Meanwhile, Labour MPs and MSPs from Scotland sat silent as a Labour Government blocked this investment, shutdown Grangemouth, allowed Mossmorran to close, put 1000 energy jobs per month at risk and wrecked investment in renewables through crippling transmission charges.

The fact is when it comes to Scottish and English industry, the UK Labour Government applies very different treatment and it is destroying confidence in Scotland’s industrial future.

You are in a position to revisit this decision, unleash Scotland’s renewables potential and end your destructive approach to our energy security, Scottish jobs and our renewables potential.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Leadbitter MP for Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey

Emma Roddick MSP for Inverness and Nairn