The mothballing of one of two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers could jeopardise jobs in Fife, a union official has claimed.
Gary Cook, the GMB’s organiser of the union in Scotland, said that there would be “serious consequences for jobs” at Rosyth if the two new vessels, currently under construction at the dockyard, were not put into service.
It follows speculation that the Ministry of Defence was to consider placing one of the two carriers — HMS Queen Elizabeth or HMS Prince of Wales — into storage as part of a plans to plug a £500 million budget shortfall.
Calling for clarification on the MoD’s plans, Mr Cook said: “The mere suggestion that one of the aircraft carriers could be mothballed will set alarm bells ringing among our members and particularly in Rosyth.
“A large chunk of the future prosperity of these yards are invested in the maintenance and routine refitting work associated with Royal Navy vessels and potentially cutting this work by 50 per cent would have serious consequences for jobs.”
HMS Queen Elizabeth is expected to embark upon sea trials this summer before relocating to her home port of Portsmouth later in the year.
Construction of her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, is around three years behind that of HMS Queen Elizabeth and of the two would be the most likely candidate to be put into storage.
In 2014, then Prime Minister David Cameron insisted that the second carrier would be put into service with the Royal Navy, despite a 2010 defence review claiming that the UK required only one such ship.
The GMB is also campaigning to bring construction of three Royal Fleet Auxiliary support vessels to yards across the UK.
Claiming that the mothballing of one of the new carriers could jeopardise these orders, Mr Cook continued: “It’s deeply worrying that the MOD is flirting with proposals that could harm our shipbuilding communities.
“Such short-sightedness would be bad news for Rosyth, bad news for Scotland and bad news for the future of UK shipbuilding and we are calling on the UK Government to provide urgent clarification on these reports.”
The Ministry of Defence has since denied that it has any plans to mothball either of the two flagship vessels, with a spokesperson saying: “We are fully committed to operating both HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.
“Britain has the largest defence budget in Europe and it is growing as we invest £178 billion pounds in new ships, submarines and aircraft over the next decade.”
