By Leeza Clark

SCOTTISH SECRETARY Alistair Darling refused to be dragged into a slanging match with the Lib Dems yesterday over a Dunfermline business seminar condemned as a “stunt.”

The Courier had earlier reported that sources close to Lib Dem Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen had viewed the event, coming only three days after the announcement that the Rosyth-based Lexmark factory was to close with the loss of 700 jobs, as a publicity stunt.

The row has erupted as campaigning for the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election hots up.

And the sources hit at Labour, saying that if Mr Darling was serious about supporting Scottish Executive initiatives to help the beleaguered workforce he could have done so by getting in touch with Mr Stephen in his capacity as enterprise minister.

Yesterday, speaking after the summit at the headquarters of the Dunfermline Building Society, Mr Darling said, “I am not going to comment on remarks like that.

“As I said on Monday the key issue in this by-election is jobs and everybody ought to be fixed on one critical thing—how do we make sure in this rapidly changing world, in expanding economies like the Far East, that Fife and Scotland continues to attract investment to encourage home-grown enterprise?

“The number one issue is the economy and jobs and that is why I am here and will continue to do what I have done for many years.”

Mr Darling added, “It’s not unusual, both during by-elections and during the normal course of events, for ministers and other politicians to meet businesses. The people who met us today certainly have no political affiliation whatsoever.”

While unable to comment on whether the business seminar had been arranged before or after the surprise announcement from Lexmark on Tuesday that it was to close its Rosyth plant, the Scottish Secretary said, “The summit would have taken place anyway.”

Dunfermline Building Society’s chief executive Graham Dalziel added that he, as host of the seminar, had warmly welcomed the chance to talk with the Scottish Secretary and said the society saw it as a rule of business to engage with government and political parties.

“I welcome the opportunity for having dialogue with the Secretary of State and there is an open invitation to other parties to have the same dialogue,” he added.

Mr Darling said that the seminar had not been out of the ordinary and that he had been meeting business leaders in all his 19 years as an MP.

He stressed the seminar would have happened anyway and pledged that there would be more such meetings in the future, not only in the Dunfermline and West Fife constituency but across Scotland.

The seminar drew in the building society, Scottish Enterprise Fife, Lauder College, Fife Council and local business leaders.

They included Gerard Eadie, boss of the home improvement company CR Smith, and Sam Russell from the Dunfermline-based Simclar company.

“We had a very successful meeting and we all acknowledged that over the last 10 years there has been quite dramatic changes,” said Mr Darling.

“We were discussing the role the Government has to play—a stable economy, low interest rates, low inflation are essential—and were discussing other things necessary for government help, particularly to encourage new firms and encourage the development of firms growing from a medium size upwards,” he said.

Labour candidate in the by-election, MEP Catherine Stihler, said there was a great need for politicians to work together with business for a brighter future.

“There are challenges but also things we can do by working together,” she said. “When I set out my agenda for growing Fife’s economy we were crystal clear that jobs and training were at the core.”

Mr Dalziel stressed the positive factors of living and working in this part of Fife and said he wanted to take the opportunity the seminar had given him to reach out to other financial players that there was scope for them to locate in west Fife.

However, the business summit was attacked as a stunt for the cameras by the Tories.

By-election candidate Carrie Ruxton claimed the climate for the creation of new businesses was much healthier under the Tories.

“If Labour wants to take lessons in business, they should look at the final year of the last Conservative government, when there were 155 more VAT registrations than deregistrations in Fife,” she said. “Contrast this with 2004, when there were 20 more deregistrations than registrations.

“The Conservatives created a climate for businesses to open, whereas a near-decade of Labour has set us all back,” Ms Ruxton said. She added, “Labour doesn’t realise that staging a business summit for the cameras won’t fool anybody and isn’t going to solve the many problems that Labour and the Liberal Democrats have created. There is an uncertainty surrounding the future of Fife as a place to do business.”

She said the best way to remove that uncertainty was to sort out the local transport difficulties, most notably the Forth Road Bridge, so goods and services can move more freely.