INVERCLYDE Liberal Democrats have called for an end to financial support to Gourock-based Amazon.

Their Greenock and Inverclyde candidate for next week’s Scottish Parliament elections, John Watson, said in recent years more than £5 million of government funding was paid to Amazon through Scottish Enterprise.

He believes this financial support cannot be justified because of the company’s tax payouts and its wage policy.

Mr Watson: “The organisation is paying staff £7.20 an hour and in 2014, Amazon paid only £11 million in tax despite £5.3 billion of sales in the UK.

“The Scottish Liberal Democrats are committed to paying the Living Wage to all public service workers, and halting business development funding to firms that don’t pay at least the Living Wage.

“Historically, Amazon has channelled its substantial UK sales through Luxembourg. While participating in this controversial tax practice, Amazon has also taken advantage of Scottish Enterprise grants. It is being rewarded for paying low levels of tax as well as low wages.”

An Amazon spokesperson said the company is proud to be a “significant contributor to the economy in Scotland”.

He said: “This includes investing hundreds of millions of pounds in our Scottish operations over the past five years, and today supporting over 2,200 competitively paid jobs at our research and development centre.”

The company says all permanent Amazon associates start on £7.35 an hour or above, increasing by at least nine per cent over their first two years of employment when all employees earn £8 an hour and above.

They said: “We pay competitive wages to ensure we are able to attract and retain the best talent.

Permanent associates also receive a comprehensive benefits package, including private medical insurance, a company pension plan, life assurance, income protection, subsidised meals and an employee discount.

Amazon also introduced ‘career choice’ last year, an innovative new education programme which pre-pays 95 per cent of tuition and associated fees for permanent employees to undertake nationally recognised courses.