The contract to build the ships was unveiled in November’s defence spending review and the government intends to honour it, Dunne told MPs in response to an urgent question from shadow defence minister Emily Thornberry.
He spoke to reassure the shipyard workers at the Scottish site that the government “remains absolutely committed to the type-26 programme and to assembling the ships on the Clyde”.
Despite the assurances, Thornberry accused the defence minister of failing to rule out redundancies, after BAE Systems last week admitted there may be up to 800 job losses in Upper Clyde.
“There were some huge concerns that he did not address. He was not prepared to give assurances on jobs or redundancies, he wasn’t in a position to tell us about the time-line or how many boats would be built,” she said.
GMB Scotland secretary Gary Smith, who previously said any job losses at the BAE shipyard would be a “total betrayal of the workforce”, highlighted a perceived contradiction between the statements of BAE and the government.
“There is a gulf between the Tories and BAE in terms of the information we are getting – and one side isn’t being honest with our members,” he said.
