Call to support Rosyth workers by keeping ship contracts in UK

Fife MP Lesley Laird has backed UK defence workers in their campaign for Royal Navy ships to be built in Britain.

Ahead of a debate in the Commons, trade union members lobbied in London calling for a contract for three new Fleet Solid Support ships to remain in the UK.

The lobby, organised by the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU), followed warnings that the UK could miss out on £1.35 billion if the contract goes overseas.

With potential implications for Rosyth, Labour’s shadow Scottish Secretary Mrs Laird met shipbuilding workers at the event and commented that would be a “travesty if the government remained hellbent on pursuing an international tender”.

The MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath said: “As the saying goes: if you buy cheap you buy dear, and the cost for Britain to lose this contract would be enormous in terms of redundancies, loss of skills and the steady dissolution of our shipbuilding industry.

“In simple terms if we stop investing in our nation’s shipbuilding capability we will lose it.

“And once it’s gone, it’s gone. As an island nation are we really saying we no longer want that capability? Because that is exactly what is at stake here.

“For workers, their families and our communities the right, forward-thinking choice may not, on paper, be the cheapest but would generate a much greater reward in the longer term.

“It’s an indisputable fact that keeping this contract in the UK would bring millions of pounds of taxes back to the treasury; £285m by one recent estimate.

“But beyond that, the benefit for families of keeping people in work is incalculable – not just to the workers and families themselves – but to local shops and businesses that keep our communities flourishing.”

She added: “Theresa May wanted a ‘red, white and blue Brexit’. Well, it’s time for her to put her money where her mouth is and apply that philosophy wholesale by supporting Britain’s shipbuilding industry.”