British workers will make the curtains for a £1.6billion fleet of UK warships while Spanish staff will manufacture the vessels’ sterns, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace admitted tonight.
The top Tory was forced to defend handing a £1.6billion shipbuilding contract for Royal Navy supply boats to a Spanish-led consortium.
The top Tory has been accused of “betraying” British workers for giving the deal for three Fleet Solid Support vessels to a bid spearheaded by Madrid-based Navantia.
But he claimed that while the boats’ sterns would be made abroad, the parts would be welded together in Scotland - protecting UK national security.
During testy exchanges with the Commons Scottish Affairs Select Committee, Mr Wallace told MPs the ships would be built in three different locations.
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“The bow and the middle section will be made, on current planning, in Harland & Wolff at Belfast and Appledore in Devon, and indeed some work at Methil and Arnish yards in Scotland, potentially,” he claimed.
Mr Wallace said other work, such as making curtains, would be carried out with “UK-sourced equipment”.
“The aft, the back end of the ship, will be made currently in Spain and then - the ship is only one part, it’s the metal box - so what then is important is what goes in; gearings, engines, navigational aids, electrical power systems all the way up to lifeboats, life jackets and curtains, I suspect,” he said.
“In those big groups, those systems, we also suspect some - I don’t know, we will see this in the contracting - UK-sourced contracting as well.”
He added: “The whole ship will be built as one at Harland & Wolff in Belfast.”
Unions and MPs were furious last month as the Tories snubbed a British-led bid by Team UK for the 709ft, 40,000-tonne Royal Fleet Auxiliary FSS vessels, which will resupply Royal Navy warships with food, ammunition and explosives.
The decision meant hundreds of jobs for Navantia’s Cadiz shipyard, as well as 1,200 posts in the UK - mainly at Harland & Wolff in Belfast.
But at least 40% of the value of the work - worth about £640million - will go abroad.
The latest revelations come amid rising anger at the Tories’ support for the armed forces.
Shipyards in Scotland would have benefited if the Conservatives had given the contract to the Team UK consortium, which included BAE Systems and Babcock.
Despite claiming to protect the Royal Navy, the Government is only ordering eight, Type 26 submarine-hunting Global Combat Ship frigates to replace 13, Type 23 frigates, along with five Type 31 cheap, fast frigates.
Sixteen, Type 42, Sheffield-class destroyers were replaced by just six, Type 45, Daring-class vessels.
The half dozen vessels need new engines, replacing the existing “propulsion systems” after they broke down in warmer waters.
