AN AGREEMENT to be signed within weeks will help ensure some defence work for the Clyde for the next 15 years, the Scottish Secretary said yesterday.
This could include work on a new generation of frigates, it was later revealed.
Jim Murphy said the “terms of business agreement” between the Ministry of Defence and warship builder BVT would offer “real assurance” for future jobs.
He was speaking after a visit to BVT’s Scotstoun yard in Glasgow, the day after a leaked memo suggested that two of the company’s three yards could close after work on two giant aircraft carriers is completed in 2014.
The author of the memo, surface fleet chief executive Alan Johnston, who accompanied Mr Murphy on yesterday’s visit, insisted the document was merely “worst-case scenario planning” conducted by all prudent firms.
Mr Murphy said: “There’s seven years of work here, and we are looking over the next few weeks to sign an agreement that would guarantee some work for the next 15 years.”
BVT employs 7,000 workers at the Govan and Scotstoun yards in Glasgow, at Portsmouth, and Bristol.
The leaked memo contemplated the period after work on the two giant aircraft carriers is finished, and said MoD requirements could be delivered from a single facility – and that the MoD had “committed to underwrite the necessary closure costs”.
The “terms of business agreement” to be signed shortly is a 15-year pact setting out how the MoD and the company will work together.
It was expected to include provision for up to 18 frigates. Mr Johnston said that, under current planning, steel for these could begin to be cut in 2013 and Govan could be a contender.
The SNP challenged Mr Murphy yesterday to guarantee that the government would not “force” the closure of any Scottish shipyards.
Defence spokesman Angus Robertson said the government should guarantee shipbuilding contracts beyond the aircraft carriers.