Rennie Visits Rosyth Dockyard

4.54.56pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 25th Sep 2006

Dunfermline & West Fife MP, Willie Rennie paid a visit to Rosyth Dockyard today to tour the facilities and meet with members of the workforce who are under threat from Ministry of Defence plans to cut jobs. The MOD recently announced plans to cut 90 jobs at the Yard, at a cost of £2 million, which Rennie believes would be better spent increasing the workload at Rosyth.

Willie Rennie said:

"It's a complete farce, they need these 90 highly skilled and motivated employees for the aircraft carrier work which is due to come to the yard. Yet through short term decision-making they are using hard earned taxpayers' money to pay redundancies. Instead that money should be used to carry out essential refit work on other ships which would ensure the continued employment of these valued employees.

"Rosyth Dockyard has superb assets, like very deep water and a confident, skilled workforce. I will be working hard to ensure that the Government understands the excellent value that Rosyth Dockyard provides.

"The refit of the HMS Liverpool, the HMS Chiddingford and the HMS Grimsby was supposed to ensure the highly skilled workforce could be kept on for the aircraft carrier work. But the scope of the work has been cut resulting in 90 redundancies.

"Rosyth Dockyard is an essential part of the Government's plans for maintenance and development of the British Navy fleet. Yet it treats the people who it expects to deliver this work with disdain. Workers at Rosyth are understandably angry at these cuts. Just a few months ago they were told there would be no job losses. This is a bitter blow.

"The Government is pumping its money into the war in Iraq, a decision we described as folly at the time. This is forcing them to make cuts elsewhere.

"This is amateurish short-termism. Any cuts today will only hurt our own armed forces tomorrow. It is time for the Minister responsible, Lord Drayson, to intervene. We need sensible long-term Government planning.

"When I initially heard rumours about cuts to the so called Liverpool 5 had discussions with Defence Secretary, Des Browne, and Defence Minister, Lord Drayson, to ensure that there would be no job losses. I am extremely annoyed by this decision."