Nuclear warning to SNP as Farmer joins the board of ScottishPower

ENTREPRENEUR Sir Tom Farmer has been appointed to the board of ScottishPower as its Spanish parent company, Iberdrola, moves to strengthen its position in Scotland.

The appointment of Farmer, one of the Scottish National Party's most prominent donors, is a further sign that the Spaniards want to build on their links with the Nationalist administration at Holyrood.

But Farmer, who made his fortune from the tyre fitting firm Kwik-Fit, yesterday refused to support the SNP's energy policy, counselling that the building of new nuclear power stations should not be ruled out.

The entrepreneur, who donated £100,000 to the SNP before the last Scottish Parliament election, said: "Demand for energy is growing, and the most important thing is to keep the power of industry running and to keep the lights on.

"So anything, provided it doesn't ruin the environment, should be looked at, and I have come to the view that nothing should be dismissed."

Farmer's views echo those of Bilbao-based Iberdrola, which is seeking to be among the companies building the next generation of nuclear stations in the UK.

Iberdrola, ScottishPower's owners since 2006, insists all of its companies are run locally, with a board of directors in each country.

The SNP was initially hostile to Iberdrola's takeover of the Glasgow-based company but there are now strong links between the Spanish firm's chairman, Ignacio Galán, and Alex Salmond, the First Minister.

Farmer, who joins the board along with Labour peer Lord Gus MacDonald, said he would contribute "a good dose of common sense" to the board, but admitted he had little knowledge of the energy sector before becoming involved with ScottishPower.

"My knowledge about power was you turned on a wee switch and the lights came on, another switch and the gas came on," he said. "I never took any thought about what made that happen, or understood the constant need for investment to keep it all going."

He was approached to be a member of the advisory board last year, and has a close relationship with Colin McNeill, ScottishPower's head of corporate communications, who worked for Farmer at Kwik-Fit and later at Hibernian.

Iberdrola insists that the board of directors of ScottishPower will call the shots for the business, overseeing a total budget of more than 1 billion (£890 million) a year.

Galán, who also chairs the ScottishPower board, said Farmer and Lord Macdonald were "highly respected individuals and their vast experience in business and the wider Scottish and UK community will be of great benefit to ScottishPower and the Iberdrola Group".