Well renowned shipyards in Portsmouth with over 500 years of shipbuilding history will be closing by the end of 2015 under the orders of BAE Systems, Portsmouth and regions in Scotland, mostly Glasgow, will experience heavy job losses. The job cuts, totally almost 1,800 were announced by BAE Systems, the UK’s largest defence contractor, but the decision was taken in consultation with the Ministry of Defence, and defence secretary, Phillip Hammond, provided details of the events in the House of Commons. Downing Street sources have stated that the decision will be reversed if the Scottish electorate votes for independence in the referendum held next year in autumn.

In his statement at the Commons, Philip Hammond stated that no longer enough defence work exists to keep shipbuilding going in both Glasgow and Portsmouth, and that it only seemed logical to consolidate the work in one location. In addition to his announcement, the remaining aircraft carrier work will not be halted and will be completed in Glasgow. Hammond described the loss of nearly 1,800 jobs as regrettable but inevitable and a “harsh blow”, but it represented the best decision in the national interest. Hammond told MP’s:

Consolidation of the ship-building industry is not a single event. It has been a process that's been going on for decades ... I'm afraid the logic of the size of the Royal Navy and the budget that we have for building new ships, the inexorable logical is that we can only support one naval shipbuilding location in the United Kingdom. Anything else, I'm afraid, is fantasy economics.
Phillip Hammond, Defence Secretary speaking at the House of Commons 06/11/13

BAE Systems experienced shipbuilding whilst it was at its highest zenith since the Second World War, however, since aircraft carrier work ended, there has been a shortfall of work with significantly too many staff for its next order, type 26 ships. The Type 26 warships are to be built in Glasgow, although Hammond hinted that Glasgow could potentially lose the Type 26 contract if Scotland votes for independence. Hammond’s response to what would happen if Scotland voted to break away from the UK:

The UK has always built complex warship in the United Kingdom so that it has sovereign control over the operation of those contracts. If we changed our position at some point in the future and decided that we wanted to compete contracts for complex warships in the open market, with countries outside the UK being able to bid, then that would open up the market to all sorts of competitors. What I have said, and I will say again today, is I see no reason to expect that the UK would want to change from the position that we will build complex warships in the UK for reasons of maintaining sovereign capability in the future.

The promised ships are expected to replace the current, smaller River Class vessels which have been sailing the UK’s waters since 2003. Hammond further added “this is an investment not only in three ships but in this country’s warship building industry. It prevents workers standing idle and sustains the vital skills needed to build the planned Type 26 frigate in the future. The Ministry of Defence announced that more than £100m will be invested into Portsmouth’s naval yards expansion in order to ensure it fully prepared for the arrival of HMS Queen Elizabeth, HMS Prince of Wales and Type 45 destroyers which are already based in Portsmouth.

During Prime Minister’s questions in the House of Commons, David Cameron said his thoughts were with the workers and families affected by these “extremely difficult decisions”. He added “We will go on building warships on the Clyde, we will be announcing three new offshore patrol vessels, keeping the yard busy rather than paying for it to remain idle as the last government proposed”

Caroline Dinenage, the Conservative MP for Gosport, complained that jobs in Portsmouth were “sacrificed” in order to protect Scottish people. Mike Hancock, an independent MP for Portsmouth South, stated ending shipbuilding at Portsmouth would be a difficult decision to reverse. He added: The expertise is very, very much dedicated to shipbuilding. And once they disperse the workforce in various parts of the south of England, I don’t think it’s going to be easy to put that back together.” He strongly believes “the government are making a big mistake for the future of shipbuilding in the UK, particularly military shipbuilding”.
Workers at BAE’s Scotsoun and Govan yards in Glasgow have been sent home for the day after being told the disappointing news, apart from being told about 800 jobs will be lost in Scotland, no breakdown was given. Workers who were sent home from the yards said they were worried and disappointed and that the announcement was not unexpected. A 63 year old plater, Alex Taylor at Govan said “We've known for a while that the workload isn't there to carry the amount of people that we had building the carriers, but hopefully voluntary redundancies will take up the slack." He added that those affected at Portsmouth were "working class guys the same as ourselves, they're just shipbuilders.”