Scottish independence would risk 12,000 defence jobs, says Hammond

UK defence secretary accuses SNP of being ‘insultingly vague’ about its proposals for an independent defence force

The defence secretary, Philip Hammond, has provoked a new row over Scottish independence by warning that 12,000 defence jobs and contracts worth billions of pounds would be put at risk if Scotland left the UK.

Hammond will warn in a speech in Edinburgh on Tuesday that the Scottish National party (SNP) has been “insultingly vague” about its proposals for an independent defence force, even though the jobs of thousands in Scotland depended on UK military spending.

Keith Brown, the Scottish veterans minister, retaliated by challenging Hammond to a public debate on defence spending, in an effort to switch attention to a significant cuts in military bases and personnel in Scotland.

Successive defence reviews have left the number of military personnel based in Scotland at its lowest level ever, Brown said. By 2011, the overall cuts in UK military personnel was nearly 12%, compared with nearly 28% within Scotland.

The concentration of surface ships in southern England meant a warship had to be sent up from Plymouth when a Russian navy vessel recently entered UK waters, and the UK no longer takes part in Nato surface ship patrols of the north Atlantic.

“If Mr Hammond is so confident about his position, he should have the courage to face me in a debate, so that the Scottish public can discover the truth about how Westminster is underfunding Scotland’s armed forces,” Brown said.

A new analysis paper on independence by the Ministry of Defence, to be published on Tuesday, argues that the future of around 12,600 high technology and heavy engineering jobs in defence contractors and shipbuilders based in Scotland would be threatened by independence.

Hammond will claim these posts – largely with foreign or UK-owned defence contractors – depend heavily on the MoD’s plans to spend up to £160bn over the next decade on new jet fighters, Royal Navy Type-26 frigates and other contracts.

Under EU rules, the UK is legally allowed to bar any foreign firms from bidding on defence contracts with national security implications: nearly £13bn of UK defence spending was exempt from foreign competition between 2010 and 2012.

Scotland would be regarded as a foreign country after independence, and the loss of UK contracts would undermine the viability of many defence employers, in turn leading to the loss of lucrative overseas defence contracts, Hammond will say.

“The Scottish people deserve to know what the impact of independence would be on the jobs and livelihoods of the many thousands of people in Scotland that are employed in the UK armed forces or in the defence industry that equips and supports them,” Hammond is expected to say.

“Instead of coming forward with detailed, costed and credible proposals to fulfil that first duty of government, the SNP have been risibly silent on the issue.”

Brown countered: “The most recent figures indicate only £2bn is being spent by the MoD in Scotland. This compares to the £3.5bn which Scots taxpayers currently contribute towards the UK’s defence …read more