The SNP hopeful for the isles pledges his party will safeguard the seas around the islands by pressing the UK government to reinstate the emergency towing vessel on the West Coast of Scotland.
In addition, they will back recruitment to posts in the coastguard stations, he said.
Angus Brendan MacNeil said: “In many areas of the SNP Manifesto, you can see an awareness and commitment to issues on the west coast of Scotland, such as the electrical interconnector or in this case the commitment to coastguards and the emergency towing vessel, tug boat, to give us a degree of safety and security around our coasts.
“In the last parliament, I fought and won at the heart of the Westminster system, to retain the Stornoway Coastguard Station, with its local knowledge, safety for mariners and of course the important jobs it brings to our community.”
He added: “However, I am aware that despite the good news of having saved the coastguard station at Stornoway, there are recruitment issues that have to be dealt with and I shall be pressing for a resolution of these.
“It is also apparent that we are lacking in a maritime insurance policy in Scotland, since the Tories and Liberals axed the emergency towing vessel based at Stornoway. There have been a number of incidents recently, where the need for a towing vessel has been clear.
“Sadly, Labour who are currently joint to the hip with the Liberals and the Tories
are planning to introduce further damaging cuts and will not be able to sort out
the issue. The solution will only come when the SNP breaks the stranglehold of the
austerity mind-
“The coastguards can certainly not continue with the further cuts that the Tories, Labour and Liberals are planning, only a jolt from the SNP to the political system will change matters.
“Finally, the more SNP MPs elected to Westminster, the louder Scotland’s voice will be in influencing the decisions taken there.”
SNP have coastguards “on the radar”
6 May 2015