Navy contract will keep Scots yards in work for 20 years
SCOTLAND’S shipyards would have missed out on billions of pounds if the SNP had succeeded in breaking up Britain, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said yesterday. The UK Government confirmed work on ‘the most advanced combat ships on the planet’ will begin on the Clyde next year.
The contract will secure the future of the shipbuilding industry until 2035.
Sir Michael said a Yes vote in 2014 would have meant the work would have gone elsewhere. He added: ‘We are respecting the result of the referendum. Scotland voted to stay in the United Kingdom and our investment here in defence is on the basis of the whole United Kingdom.
‘Lossiemouth will have extra airplanes, maritime patrol aircraft and typhoons; Rosyth has been building the carrier; the Clyde will be home to all of the Royal Navy’s submarines. We are investing in Scotland on the basis that Scotland will be staying in the United Kingdom.’
The work to build the eight Type 26 frigates will take place at BAE’s Govan and Scotstoun yards in Glasgow.
At the Govan yard yesterday, Sir Michael repeatedly refused to say if the work would be moved to another part of the UK if there was a Yes vote in a future independence referendum, although he pointed out: ‘It’s a contract with the United Kingdom Government.’
He hit out at Nicola Sturgeon for warning that failing to deliver the contract would be a ‘betrayal’ of shipbuilding workers, who were told during the independence referendum their jobs were only secure if Scotland remains in the UK.
He said: ‘If this is a betrayal, it’s a £1billion betrayal, keeping the shipyards here in work for the next 20 years. She has her answer: this Government is firmly committed to shipbuilding on the Clyde and a programme that will take us to 2035.
‘I hope that will be one thing the First Minister can actually welcome. This investment would not have been made if Scotland had voted to leave. If the SNP had had its way, there wouldn’t be any Trident submarines to protect.’
Sir Michael told workers at the yard that the UK Government has ‘reached agreement in principle with BAE Systems to turn our Type 26 ambition into reality’ and that ‘the first steel cut will now take place next summer’.
The construction of the new frigates, together with other vessels, means the UK will have ‘a formidable flotilla of firepower’ by the 2020s, he added.
It is estimated that the 20year investment in Scottish shipbuilding will be worth billions of pounds.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell, who toured the Govan yard with Sir Michael, said: ‘This is a great day for the Clyde, a great day for Scotland and a great day for our defence forces across the United Kingdom.’
Plans to build the new frigates were set out in the Government’s 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, although the project has been scaled back from earlier proposals to construct 13 ships.
BAE Systems managing director Nigel Whitehead said the work will be ‘a significant programme for the next two decades, manufacturing outstanding ships’.
Unite regional co-ordinating officer Kenny Jordan said: ‘We’re pleased the Defence Secretary has finally committed to meeting the promises made to the workforce on the Clyde.’
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said: ‘Nicola Sturgeon has often used the Clyde yards as a political football. But it is worth noting all this work is as a direct result of staying part of the United Kingdom.’
But Sir Michael also signalled there could be cuts to Scottish bases when a review of the Army’s Estate is unveiled next week.
Asked if he could guarantee the future of the Fort George Barracks in Inverness-shire, he said only that the UK Government is investing more in Lossiemouth and Faslane.
SNP defence spokesman Brendan O’Hara said: ‘I’m obviously very pleased the UK Government has at last come forward with a date for “cutting steel” on the Type 26 frigate programme. It is something the SNP has been keeping up the pressure on the UK Government to do for the past few months.’
‘Formidable flotilla of firepower’
THE SNP’s ability to take umbrage and synthesise grievance is truly breathtaking.
Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said yesterday that work on building eight Type 26 frigates for the Royal Navy will begin at shipyards in Glasgow next summer. Hundreds of skilled jobs will be safeguarded until 2035. Sir Michael also announced that a contract for two new offshore patrol vessels would be signed off shortly, securing jobs ahead of the Type 26 work coming onstream.
Nicola Sturgeon’s reaction to this shot in the arm for the economy? ‘The promise hasn’t been kept in full, the number (of ships) has reduced and there has been a real delay in getting this work started,’ she said.
It took Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson to set this cavilling in perspective with a sharp reminder of how many anti-submarine frigates an independent Scotland would have been ordering from the Clyde: zero.