EXXONMOBIL’S decision to close its ethylene plant at Mossmorran could not only cost 400 jobs but create an “industrial wasteland in Fife,” Unite has warned.

Despite raking in an eye-watering £25 billion in profits last year, the oil and gas giant made the closure announcement on Tuesday, dealing another blow to a Scottish manufacturing sector still reeling from the closure of nearby Grangemouth earlier this year.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham branded the decision “utterly disgraceful” and called on the firm to “withdraw the closure threat and enter into meaningful negotiations with all key players to ensure the future of the plant and jobs.”

Regional officer Bob MacGregor added: “ExxonMobil is one of the richest companies in the world.

“It cannot be allowed to walk away and leave an industrial wasteland in Fife.”

Labour energy and business minister Chris McDonald’s announcement in Parliament on Tuesday that the government would not intervene to secure the plant’s future, inviting fury from SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, who accused the government of “sleepwalking into the deindustrialisation of Scotland.”

And Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth Brian Leishman told the minister it was an “all too familiar story — private capital closing industry, leaving workers as disposable commodities to be tossed aside and a community devastated,” adding: “The government stepped in at Scunthorpe but did not at Grangemouth, and it looks like it won’t at Mossmorran.

“Why not? Because Scotland is once again the victim of chronic deindustrialisation.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today however, ExxonMobil chairman Paul Greenwood blamed high energy prices and “deliberate government policies” such as taxing CO2 which cost the operation £20 million a year and were “undermining us.”

Seizing on the comments at Prime Minister’s Questions, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch challenged PM Sir Keir Starmer: “Can the Prime Minister tell us is the loss of UK industry the price the country has to pay for having a clueless Chancellor?”

The Prime Minister hit back: “It is a difficult time for the workforce there and we must focus on supporting them.

“We’ve been meeting the company for over six months and explored every possible, reasonable avenue.”

He added: “They have been facing losses for the last five years — it’s best to do the detail before you chunter — and they’re currently losing £1m a week.”