Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh
Main Page: Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (Scottish National Party - Ochil and South Perthshire)Department Debates - View all Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh's debates with the Ministry of Defence
Shipbuilding on the Clyde
Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh Excerpts(7 years, 12 months ago)
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Mr Dunne
The hon. Lady will have to have a little more patience. The way in which major procurements of this nature take place means that it is not appropriate to set hares running or, frankly, to be alarmist about the prospects for individual companies or locations. Until such time as a contract has been signed, there is not the clarity that the hon. Lady seeks to achieve.
Ms Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (Ochil and South Perthshire) (SNP)
The 2015 SDSR gave an explicit commitment to the eight Type 26 frigates being built on the Clyde. Given that the workers at Govan and Scotstoun also heard that there would be 12 Type 45 destroyers, and then that there would be eight, before finally being given work for six, does the Minister wonder why the Clyde workforce are unsure about MOD promises? On that basis, can he categorically confirm that eight Type 26s will be built there?
Mr Dunne
The hon. Lady needs to speak to those who were in post when the decisions were taken to reduce the Type 45 class. That was certainly not done under this Government. We made it crystal clear in the SDSR that eight Type 26 global combat ships would be built on the Clyde. In response to the hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald), may I say that that is the reassurance that the workforce on the Clyde need? This is a forward programme, the like of which, during the past six years under the previous coalition Government, we had not been able to implement: now we can.