Labour’s shadow chancellor said she wants Scotland to be a world leader in the renewable, green industries of the future.

Rachel Reeves visited Siemens at Cambuslang to meet staff and apprentices to see how young people were getting skills the need for the workforce.

Reeves, launching Labour’s economic plan for Scotland with UK party leader, Keir Starmer and Scottish leader, Anas Sarwar, said the country has huge potential but it is not being realised.

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Speaking to the Glasgow Times, she said: “There are so many opportunities here in Scotland. Labour’s Green Prosperity plan is about securing good jobs in industrialised areas in coastal communities in industries from green steel to green hydrogen to carbon capture and storage.

“There is a massive opportunity for this industry here in Scotland. Keir Starmer was at Whitelees wind farm recently and the 350 wind turbines, none of them are made in Britain.

"I think they are all towed in from Indonesia, the Forth Crossing work, none of the steel is made in Britain.

“We’ve got to do more to buy, make and sell here in Britain and the Green Prosperity Plan is a massive opportunity for the British Government to invest alongside those businesses for the future.”

She said Scotland was well placed to take advantage of opportunities in green technologies needed to meet the changing economies around the work.

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Reeves added: “There’s nowhere better to seize those opportunities than Scotland because of the industrial heritage and the geography of Scotland.

“We want to make the most of those opportunities.

“Some country in the world is going to be a global leader in these industries of the future,  why not Britain, why not Scotland?

“We’ve got huge potential but that’s not being realised today.”

She spoke about the challenges of getting young people the skills they need and also how does Scotland and the UK can meet gaps in the labour market.

She said that more immigration was not necessarily the way to go.

Reeves, said: “We have to listen to businesses about what they need but immigration can’t be the only lever that can be pulled.

“There are 500,000 fewer people in the labour market than before the pandemic because people have retired early people are off with ill health.”

Instead, she said there are people currently out of the workforce who could be helped back.

She added: “The lack of availability of childcare means so many working parents, particularly mums aren’t in work, so instead of always turning to immigration we need to make sure people who are in Britain already are given support to return to work."

She said that businesses need more flexibility in training and retraining the workforce.

Reeves added: “Also, we need to be skilling people up. It’s fantastic to see young people at Siemens today and see young people getting the skills they need to succeed in life not just with a job but with a carer for the future.

“We want to reform how the apprentice system works and that more young people and more people retraining get the opportunity to get skilled up to fill some of those vacancies.

“Of course where businesses say we’ve got a real problem now we will always look at that but we must be doing more to ensure that people already in Britain are given the chance to skill up for the jobs of the future.”