Speculation is mounting that both of the Royal Navy’s planned new aircraft carriers will be saved from the axe securing thousands of Scottish jobs in Rosyth and on the Clyde.
Sources close to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) seem to suggest the £5.2 billion contract for both carriers will go ahead, but it may be that the deadline for completing the second will be pushed back.
The rumours surfaced following last Tuesday’s meeting of the final national security council before the government announces the results of the strategic defence and security review (SDSR) in the Commons next week.
While Prime Minister David Cameron’s official spokesman declined to comment on the meeting, he did admit very good progress had been made.
However, rumours seems to favour the idea both HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales will be saved.
It is thought negotiations will go on right until the very last moment on the package of cuts needed to address a £38 billion overspend in the MoD’s procurement budget over the coming decade.
The strategy announcement will be delivered in two parts next week.
On Monday the first, setting out the strategic context, will be announced, then on Tuesday the main spending decisions will be unveiled in a statement to parliament, only 24 hours before the Comprehensive Spending Review is made public.Cautiously optimisticUnion leaders at Rosyth are cautiously optimistic the carrier contract will go ahead as planned.
Pat McKee, convener of the Unite union, told The Courier this week he hoped the government would “see sense.”
He said he represented a lot of union members who were anxious about their jobs, and that he was hopeful the government will stick with the agreement concerning the carriers at Rosyth.
“As we approach the time for the defence review I am hopeful that they will give us the go-ahead.
“I think that with the work having started on one of the carriers the contract should continue.
“I don’t see the sense in just building one, but it depends on how much money they would want to save by doing that.”
Mr McKee said union members hold regular meetings under the Aircraft Alliance Forum to discuss the on-going situation.
“Our last forum was held at Govan and we decided that we would carry on with the aircraft carrier contract regardless of what is being said,” he added.
“We hope that the review will see sense.”
He continued, “The Scottish MSPs have agreed to work together and speak for the one base here at Rosyth.
“They know what this means to the shipworkers in Scotland.”
Raymond Duguid, chairman of the Rosyth Trades Union Council, said, “These carriers are important for the UK, not just Scotland, and not just Rosyth.
“If the contract is scrapped we face putting 10,000 skilled workers on the dole.
“Do we want to be paying out more dole money when they could be working on this contract which has already been signed?
“The cost of killing this off would be as expensive as building the carriers.”
Mr Duguid also pointed out the humanitarian role aircraft carriers carry out.
“Think of the earthquake in Haiti the first thing the US sent was a carrier.
“They get the supplies they need on the ground there quickly, they get help into places fast.”UnityEric McLeod, convener of the GMB union, said the MoD had told his members not to speak to the media until the review was complete.
Politicians also appear to be united in their support for the project.
Dunfermline and West Fife MP Thomas Docherty said, “We need both the carriers, and I won’t rest until Liam Fox tells us that both are going to be built. Fundamentally, we need two carriers for defence and strategic reasons.
“The workforce at Rosyth are rightly very proud of the fantastic job they are doing.”
Mr Docherty made no secret, from the moment he was elected, that safeguarding jobs at the Fife yard by ensuring the carriers contract goes ahead was his top priority.
He said it was an “absurd situation” to see work already taking shape on the first carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, and to think the contract might be abandoned.Defence of the RealmHis Labour colleague Lindsay Roy, the MP for Glenrothes, said, “Our number one priority as a country is to have a defence capable of protecting our assets.
“As a parliament we need to ensure we protect our coasts.
“We do not want what would amount to fishery protection.”
Mr Roy insisted the threat to Britain’s defence capability was a very real one and not just imagined.
“There is a real domino effect if the carriers do not go ahead,” he added.
“I fear what would happen if we do not have the carriers and, say, there was another Falklands invasion.
“Are we going to abandon those islanders to their fate because we don’t have the capability?
“Strategically, they are absolutely vital to the UK and our future prosperity.”