The Prime Minister has congratulated a Fife manufacturing firm which has won two large contracts, the Scotsman newspaper has reported.

David Cameron visited Burntisland Fabrication (BiFab) after bosses announced they will be taking on 350 new staff.

The company has won contracts worth £140m involving the design, procurement and construction of major components for a new oil platform.

The work for Premier Oil's Solan development near Sheland will double the company's workforce by December and allow it to continue the apprenticeship programme it started five years ago.

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Mr Cameron told workers at BiFab that Britain's economy had been "too reliant on financial services and banking".

He said the government will "try and do our bit" to help boost British manufacturing, and said BiFab was "a great British business that is doing fantastic things".

He said: "It's great news that you're going to be building this stuff here in Scotland rather than having it imported from elsewhere."

Mr Cameron pledged: "I can commit that we will try and do our bit to help, whether that's helping with the oil offshore allowances we put in the last budget; whether its supporting apprenticeships, I think there were 450,000 apprentices started last year which was a record year; or anything else we can do to encourage manufacturing and local content as you're demonstrating here."

The Prime Minister is on a tour of the UK to promote the Olympics and said his visit to BiFab was "a good intermission" between taking the French president to the handball and taking the Russian president to watch judo.

(NE)