Anger on the Clyde as cheap frigate plans are put on hold
Shipyards can't match the price the MoD wants to pay for the Type 31
A Glasgow MP's warning Clyde shipbuilding risks going back to the bad old days of under-investment as the Ministry of Defence is forced to relaunch the competition to build new low-cost warships.
Government officials are insisting there are no changes to the plans to procure the first batch of five Type 31e vessels and it still wants the first ship delivered in 2023.
But the GMB union said the news was a blow to shipbuilding communities and the Scottish National Party said it was "utterly shocking''.
In September 2017, First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Philip Jones said the proposed Type 31e would be a "credible frigate'' but come at a cost of £250 million per ship.
But the process to build the new frigates will now be restarted due to "insufficient compliant bids'' being received for an "effective and robust competition''.
Scottish Labour MP for Glasgow North East Paul Sweeney said: "It's clear the MoD price target was unrealistic without putting in place the certainty of the orders being placed with a given consortium, so they could invest and be match-fit to build the ship at that price.
"The industry deserves better than for this story to be sneaked out on the day before recess. It's disappointing that the Secretary of State did not choose to inform the house.
"Just as we have seen with the Fleet Solid Support ships the Government is failing to support our industry and provide the reassurance needed for our shipbuilding industry to invest to be world class.
"We have a huge opportunity to achieve that with Type 26 being built on the Clyde and Type 31e, yet their adherence to free-market dogma above all else is squandering it; going back to the bad old days of insecure jobs and lack of investment that plagued our shipyards through the 1990s.
A MoD spokesman said: "There have been no changes in our plans to procure a first batch of five new Type 31e frigates to grow our Royal Navy.
"We still want the first ship delivered by 2023 and are confident that industry will meet the challenge of providing them for the price tag we've set.
"This is an early contract in a wider procurement process, and we will incorporate the lessons learned and begin again as soon as possible so the programme can continue at pace.''
Gary Smith, Scottish secretary of the GMB union, said: "This will come as a real blow to shipbuilding communities in Scotland and across the UK.
"We are already losing jobs in yards like Rosyth as the carrier work is completed.
"This news comes after big cuts to the original Type 26 programme, the broken promise to build a state of the art frigate factory on the Clyde, that would have allowed us to compete in global markets for building complex warships and the decision by the Tories to put the tender for the three support vessels for the carriers out to international tender as opposed to putting the work into UK yards.
"It is an utter shambles but this is what happens when you have Treasury dominating decisions over sovereign defence capability.''
SNP defence spokesman Stewart McDonald said: "The Ministry of Defence has been unable to answer the most basic questions about the cost of this new Type 31e frigates and today they have had to own up to their own chaotic failures."