Former UK Business Secretary Vince Cable has suggested political considerations played a part in the decision to halt a proposed £1.5 billion wind turbine manufacturing plant at Ardersier in the Highlands.

The former Liberal Democrat leader said Westminster based parties had been “reluctant to align with the SNP administration” as controversy continues over the collapse of plans that could have created around 1,500 jobs.

Chinese renewable energy company Ming Yang had proposed building what would have been the UK’s largest wind turbine manufacturing facility at Ardersier.

The UK Labour Government intervened amid national security concerns surrounding Chinese investment in strategically important infrastructure.

Cable’s intervention has now added a political dimension to the argument over why the development was stopped and whether concerns about security were the only factor behind the decision.

The row is particularly significant for the Highlands because the proposed factory represented one of the largest potential industrial investments in the region for decades.

SNP MP Graham Leadbitter seized on Cable’s comments and called on the UK Government to explain its reasoning.

“This intervention from Vince Cable confirms what most of us suspected all along, the primary reason this investment was stopped was because it’s in the Highlands rather than Hertfordshire.

“If this UK Labour government is so concerned about national security, then why is it allowing Chinese firms to invest in nuclear plants, airports, and super-embassies south of the border.

“Whether it’s Grangemouth, Mossmorran, the North Sea, and now Ardersier, Westminster stands back in Scotland, while investing in and supporting industry South of the Border, the trend is plain to see.

“The UK government must now come clean on the reasons behind their ideological block on this manufacturing plant which would have created 1,500 jobs in my constituency.”

The SNP argues there is an inconsistency between the concerns raised over Ming Yang’s proposed Highland investment and the involvement of Chinese companies in major infrastructure and energy projects elsewhere in the UK.

That remains a political argument rather than proof that the Ardersier decision was taken specifically because the development was in Scotland.

Cable’s comments are nevertheless significant because they come from a former UK Business Secretary rather than from within the SNP itself.

For the Highlands, the central issue remains considerably less complicated than the political argument surrounding it.

A proposed £1.5 billion manufacturing investment carrying the prospect of around 1,500 jobs has not gone ahead, and questions over precisely why such a substantial economic opportunity was lost are unlikely to disappear.