Royal Navy’s threat to pull shipyard contract ‘preposterous’, says Sturgeon

Scotland’s deputy first minister says Philip Hammond was trying to use BAE shipyard decision to punish ‘yes’ voters

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s deputy first minister, has insisted the Royal Navy could still build its new warships in Glasgow after independence in a joint procurement deal with the Scottish defence force.

Sturgeon said it was “preposterous” for the UK government to threaten that BAE’s two yards in Glasgow would lose their multibillion-pound contracts for 13 new Type 26 frigates if Scotland voted for independence next year.

Philip Hammond, the UK defence secretary, and Alistair Carmichael, the Scottish secretary, confirmed on Wednesday that the UK would enforce its strict policy of not building military warships in a foreign country if Scotland voted to leave the UK.

Hammond said the contract for building the new global combat ships would not be signed until after next September’s independence referendum, timing interpreted by many as an explicit threat to the thousands of jobs tied to BAE’s Govan and Scotstoun yards.

The deputy first minister, whose Glasgow Govan constituency borders BAE’s yard, claimed a future Scottish defence fogrce would want to buy frigates, and could build them jointly with the UK in Glasgow.

Sturgeon said that if Govan and Scotstoun were the best yards for the job now, as Hammond has insisted, they would be the best yards in a year’s time.

“The Type 26, assuming MoD does decide to go ahead, these ships will be built on the Clyde because – as BAE said yesterday and the defence secretary said yesterday – it is the best place to build them, because of the investment we’ve seen in these yards, because of the skill mix and because of the value for money,” she said on BBC Radio Scotland.

Carmichael said: “In the unlikely event of Scotland removing herself from the UK then the rest of the UK would let future contracts on the same basis as ones that we are discussing today, that is to yards within their country.

“If Scotland is no longer part of that country then yes, it’s difficult to see how the work would go to Scotland.”

Speaking about that risk, Sturgeon said: “That’s a preposterous suggestion – the idea that people in Scotland should be somehow punished for voting yes.

“I would hope that all serious politicians would distance themselves from that kind of suggestion. The Clyde is and will remain the best place to build these Type 26 frigates. The fact of the matter is, an independent Scotland would want some of these Type 26 frigates. We would want to see sensible joint procurement.”

UK ministers believe that BAE’s decision to end shipbuilding at Portsmouth with the loss of 900 jobs, announced on Wednesday, could be quickly reversed if Scotland’s voters back independence next year.

They insist that refusing to contract the work to yards in an independent Scotland is completely consistent with long-standing Ministry of Defence policy to protect the UK’s sovereign and strategic interests by building complex warships only in UK yards.

War-fighting vessels like the Type 26 frigates and the …read more