Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell has said she is not ready to accept that the Boots cosmetics factory in Airdrie must close with the loss of 1,000 jobs.

The High Street chemist announced on Tuesday that it was switching production to Nottingham, ending a 50 year association with the Lanarkshire town.

Boots hopes that moving production will save almost �50m over three years.

The company said there will be no compulsory redundancies for nine months and that the plant will close down over the next two years.

Helen Liddell: Not end game

Mrs Liddell, who is the MP for Airdrie and Shotts, described her meeting with bosses at the 50-acre factory site as "constructive".

She said that staff there were victims of the firm's downturn.

She refused to accept that it was "end game" for the 750 full time and 250 part time workers who face the axe.

Mrs Liddell will be joined by Enterprise Minister Iain Gray and local MSP Karen Whitefield at talks with Boots' corporate directors in Glasgow on Friday in a bid to save the facility.

She said: "It's come as a shock to us, I'm still not ready to accept that this plant must close."

Only real option

"I don't think at any stretch we are at end game in this."

Airdrie and Shotts MSP Karen Whitefield also expressed the hope that the plant could be saved from closure.

But, following their meeting, Boots bosses at the town factory said that closure was the "only real option".

They said the decision to close it had followed a ten-month review and insisted politicians had been made aware of the process.

A spokesman said: "The politicians understand that the issue for the company is about making best use of manufacturing capacity across four sites.

"The review showed that closure of the Airdrie factory was the only real option. We are now entering a consultation period with our staff and with the unions."