Businessman Jim McColl disputes shipyard closure claim

The former owner of the Ferguson Marine shipyard said Nicola Sturgeon's claim it would close without the contract for two CalMac ferries was "a lie".

Jim McColl, in an interview on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, also disputed the first minister's claim about how many jobs were saved by the contract for the ferries - Glen Sannox and Hull 802 - which are now overdue and over budget.

This is the latest in the war of words over the troubled contract at the Port Glasgow shipyard. Ms Sturgeon had previously told Good Morning Scotland that had a different decision been taken at Fergusons it would almost certainly have closed and the 400 workers currently employed would have gone.

Mr McColl said: "That's a lie. At the time there were 150 employees, not 400.

"I think she was a bit rattled in the interview and she mixed it up with the statement that they made about saving the yard."