A “HORRIFIED” Sir Keir Starmer has called on the SNP Scottish government to intervene after Lanarkshire’s steelworks were mothballed.

The Prime Minister made the remarks after workers were placed on furlough at Clydebridge and Dalzell, plants which have struggled for orders since they were bought by the steel company Liberty House Group, itself owned by the multinational GFG Alliance, in 2016 — with the help of a £7 million Scottish government loan.

GFG Alliance and its owner Sanjeev Gupta, who bought the Lochaber aluminium smelter with a £586m Scottish government guarantee the same year, are now the subject of a Serious Fraud Office probe as part of ongoing inquiries into the collapse of financier Greensill Capital.