Sir Menzies Campbell has urged the coalition’s new defence secretary to reconsider the axing of RAF Leuchars.
The North East Fife MP has written to Liam Fox’s replacement, Philip Hammond, with a plea for a rethink on the decision to turn the century-old air base into an army garrison.
He told The Courier: ”Questions are legitimately being raised about the credibility of the Ministry of Defence’s plans for Scotland, and in particular whether they can be adequately financed.”
In his letter to Mr Hammond he writes: ”Parliamentary answers from your department have intimated that the cost of transferring the Typhoons from RAF Leuchars to RAF Lossiemouth and the long-term cost of operating the aircraft from the more northern base are expected to be mitigated by sales of properties in the defence estate in Scotland.
”It is a reasonable inference that it will cost more to operate the Typhoon from Lossiemouth not least because of the new infrastructure required at Lossiemouth. The savings your department hopes to achieve in Scotland are dependent on the sale of ‘high value’ properties in and around Edinburgh.
”Questions have now legitimately been raised about the credibility of the estimates of the proceedings of such sales given the current state of the economy and the fact that buildings such as Redford Barracks, which has been identified for sale, are listed.
”A possible outcome for my constituency, which gives rise to widespread concern, is that the RAF will vacate the base at Leuchars only for the army to fail to take occupancy, or at best take only partial occupancy, because of funding uncertainty and the predicted further net reduction in the number of army personnel, despite the return of troops from Germany.
”The risk is that the RAF will have been relocated from a strategically important base for ostensible financial reasons which will fail to result in any savings to the public purse.
”Fife will suffer the loss of the RAF at Leuchars only for the promised army presence not to be realised.”
He added: ”It is believed that the recommendations made at the highest level in the RAF were for the retention of Leuchars as an RAF base yet strategic defence considerations appear to have been outweighed by economic considerations.”