Harland & Wolff Group Holdings PLC's (AIM:HARL) recently departed chief executive John Wood has criticised the UK government’s lack of commitment to the iconic yet imperilled Belfast shipyard.
Facing insolvency, Harland & Wolff had been pleading with the UK government to guarantee a £200 million loan to prevent the business, which in a previous life built the ill-fated Titanic ocean liner, from entering administration.
The newly elected Labour government ignored these pleas in July on grounds of "a very substantial risk that taxpayer money would be lost".
Since then, Harland & Wolff has lost a key port contract with the Falkland Islands government and its London Stock Exchange listing remains suspended.
Wood announced a leave of absence on 19 July and has since updated his current employment status on LinkedIn to ‘Gone Fishing’.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Wood threw some indirect barbs at Labour’s refusal to guarantee what could have been a lifesaving loan for the company.
He said: “Delivering on our five year plan agreed with government when we acquired the Belfast facility, which should have unlocked funding to grow the business to the next level as was agreed with the PM and his advisors at the time.
“Unfortunately with changing leaders across different parties and different priorities the commitment disappeared. There was no surprise, shock or panic everyone knew five years ago of what the needs of the business were in the long term.
“The hard working team have shown what can be achieved, however without support for the industry like our European neighbours receive it is a tough ask to rebuild an industry that has been in decline for several decades.”
Wood said he “will take a bit of time out before deciding on what my next challenge will be”.