THE DAUGHTER of former Unite convener Stevie Deans led calls to renationalise the giant Grangemouth oil refinery yesterday after watching billionaire owner Jim Ratcliffe hound out her dad and hold Britain to ransom.

Ailis Deans held back tears as she told Unite conference how her dad was “portrayed as a criminal” for standing up for 800 workers facing the sack. 

She recounted how Mr Ratcliffe “victimised him in public and even humiliated him” in his bid to break the union at Grangemouth. 

“Jim Ratcliffe — the man who didn’t care that it broke mine and my 12-year-old sister’s hearts to see my dad portrayed as a criminal in newspapers and on TV,” stormed Ms Deans.

“He’s a man who didn’t care that our mum was terrified to leave our house because journalists were camped outside on our doorstep. 

“He’s a man that didn’t care and, as a result of his attack, my dad was left broken.”

The youth delegate described the ordeal that began last October as the “toughest time my family has ever faced.”

Mr Deans quit his role as Unite convener and left the refinery amid a barrage of allegations that he signed workers up to the Labour Party to fix the selection of the party’s candidate for the Falkirk by-election.

Police and Labour Party investigations showed the allegations to be baseless. 

Hitting back on behalf of her family yesterday, Ms Deans added: “Jim Ratcliffe set out to damage the trade union movement. 

“But I think everyone here will agree with me that he didn’t damage it at all — he made it stronger.”

Unite leader Len McCluskey and more than a thousand members leapt to their feet in a spontaneous ovation for Ms Deans as left the stage.

Convener Mark Lyon was also sacked by Mr Ratcliffe in the wake of last year’s industrial dispute sparked by his ultimatum to workers to choose between pay and pension cuts or a future on the dole. 

Orchestrating his smear campaign from a £130 million yacht, Mr Ratcliffe also demanded millions in public subsidies to keep Grangemouth open. 

Mr Lyon said it would be easy to blame the billionaire for the dispute but said it proved “ownership is the nub of this issue.

“This was a site that was publicly owned in the 1970s,” he said. 

“It was privatised because they didn’t want public intervention in the market.

“Except when the intervention is to hand over millions and millions of pounds of public money. They’ve got no problem with that intervention.”

Delegates unanimously agreed that key industries should be nationalised to stop a repeat of the scandals.