A newly-elected Fife MP has used his maiden speech in the House of Commons to fire a warning shot across the government’s bows.
Labour’s Thomas Docherty said ditching the second of the navy’s new aircraft carriers could cost hundreds of jobs at Rosyth dockyard.
Mr Docherty, who represents Dunfermline and West Fife, vowed when he was elected to fight to make sure the Prince of Wales is built.
He told the Commons Rosyth was the largest private-sector employer in his constituency and it played a vital support role for the navy’s surface fleet.
“Of course, people in west Fife are very concerned about the defence review that the Ministry (of Defence) will undertake shortly,” he said.
He reminded the House former Prime Minister Gordon Brown had pledged the carriers would be built.
“Without the two carriers, the Queen Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales, our nation’s armed forces would rely wholly on the goodwill of foreign nations to carry out air operations in any future conflict,” he added.
“If the Prince of Wales were to be cancelled, delayed or downgraded, as many Liberal Democrats, including the new business secretary, have suggested, we would have to rethink the very fundamentals of our defence policy.
“There would also be a wider economic impact.
“Not only would it threaten hundreds of new jobs and apprenticeships at our dockyard, it would have a devastating impact on many companies across Fife, Scotland and the rest of the UK.
“The Ministry of Defence itself estimates that some 10,000 British jobs will be sustained by the project.”
And he urged defence secretary Liam Fox to “give a clear undertaking that the construction of the two new supercarriers will not be subject to review.”