The doomed Longannet coal-fired power station is at the centre of a new role after Labour accused the SNP of a lack of long-term planning.

The Fife facility was widely expected to survive until 2020 at the latest as a result of a shift towards greener fuel, heavy environmental taxes and its age. But owners Scottish Power are likely to pull the plug by March, far earlier expected

Since then, the Scottish Government has been working alongside Scottish Power, Fife Council and Trade Unions in a bid to win the plant an unlikely stay of execution and offer assistance to the workforce.

However Labour energy spokesman Lewis Macdonald, who submitted a series of parliamentary questions seeking details of contact between the Scottish Government, Scottish Power and the UK Government, has said more should have been done to plan for the inevitable closure of Longannet before crisis hit.

Responses from Fergus Ewing, the energy minister, indicate that the Government held no formal meetings with the workers' representatives, the UK Government or Scottish Power specifically regarding the future of the plant until late last year

While concerns over a transmission charging regime which has been blamed for Longannet's premature closure have been expressed to the UK Government since 2007, the Scottish Government only requested "urgent talks" with the UK Government regarding Longannet in October 2014.

Mr Macdonald said: "My concern is that the Government doesn't seem to have seen this coming, despite everyone knowing closure was on the cards by 2020. It's disappointing that they have so little to say, other than blaming the transmission charging.

"Clearly, they're talking to people now but there is very little evidence of them taking the issue of closure seriously before the 2016 date came up. It appears that until last year, there was no minister to minister discussion." You can describe the problem any way you want, but if you're not talking to the UK Government which has responsibility for energy policy, how can you make a plan?"

Trade union Prospect said it was happy with the Holyrood government's support.

A spokesman for Mr Ewing accused Mr Macdonald of making "misdirected, inept and irrelevant" comments saying despite calls from the most senior figures in the Scottish Government over Longannet, the UK Government had failed to act.

He added: "The call was made at the highest level by the First Minister to the Prime Minister - but he refused point blank to help, nor did he accept that there was anything to correct despite the fact that the discriminatory charging regime meant that Scottish Power has to pay around £30 million a year more than a similar power station in South East England."