Revealed: Faslane nuclear sub tugs to be built in China

GMB Scotland has raised the alarm as tugs for the Faslane nuclear submarine base are built in China despite Scotland’s publicly-owned shipyard urgently needing work just eight miles away.

A £200m contract to build 24 Royal Navy support vessels has been awarded to Damen, a Dutch defence giant, without any UK shipyards, including Ferguson Marine, being invited to bid.

Multinational Damen, currently being prosecuted for alleged bribery and sanctions busting, will now build the navy tugs at shipyards in China and Vietnam. Other workboats, including pilot ships and crane barges, for navy bases at Faslane, Portsmouth and Devonport will be constructed in Poland and Romania.

GMB attacked the decision to offshore the contract when nationalised Ferguson’s, in Port Glasgow, the Clyde’s last commercial shipyard, urgently needs a new pipeline of work.

Louise Gilmour, GMB Scotland secretary, attacked the failure to support a blameless workforce seeking to rebuild their yard’s reputation for excellence after delays and overspends on the two ferries most recently built there.

She said: “These are exactly the kind of small ships that Ferguson’s has successfully built for generations and this is exactly the kind of contract needed to secure its future.

“Instead, navy workboats that could be built a stone’s throw from Faslane, supporting Scottish workers and their communities, are being put together on the other side of the world.

“It would be laughable if it wasn’t so dismal and that’s before we even talk about the security implications.

The union said an official investigation into software fitted in Chinese-made buses across the UK, including Scotland, is already underway into fears the vehicles could be controlled remotely by the manufacturers. The inquiry by the National Cyber Security Centre was revealed in November and will establish if the buses are at risk of interference amid escalating concern about Chinese involvement in UK infrastructure.

Meanwhile, security experts have flagged the movements of the nuclear fleet in and out of Faslane as a key target for surveillance by foreign governments with drones, linked to China, already being tracked near the Clyde base. 

Gilmour said: “So the UK authorities launch an urgent investigation to establish if the Beijing is fitting our buses with remote control spyware while allowing Chinese yards to build the Royal Navy support vessels steering the UK’s entire nuclear submarine fleet in and out of one of our most strategically important and sensitive bases? 

“In what world does that make any kind of sense? This contract must be suspended immediately, reviewed urgently then halted permanently.

“Ministers can make the usual excuses about how their hands are tied by procurement rules but other countries do not find it so difficult to support their own industries, protect their own workers, and safeguard their own security.

“To send this work abroad without discussion with UK yards, unions, or, apparently, ministers is abject and exposes a complete lack of political oversight or industrial strategy.”

Serco, a multinational service provider, is being paid £1 billion to provide support for Royal Navy bases at Faslane, Devonport and Portsmouth but, according to the Ministry of Defence, the terms of the contract mean the company can award the work without inviting UK tenders or consulting ministers.

The contract to replace the Defence Maritime Services fleet was awarded to Damen in September shortly before the Dutch company, which denies all wrongdoing, was due to appear in court facing accusations of bribery, corruption, money laundering and ­violating sanctions against Russia.

GMB, the biggest union at Ferguson’s, has now written to defence secretary John Healey and Scotland secretary Douglas Alexander calling on ministers to pause and review the contract and, if possible, bring it back to be shared among UK yards, including Ferguson’s.

Gilmour said: “We have a Royal Navy base that badly needs small boats and a few miles away a shipyard that has successfully built small boats for 120 years and urgently needs to build more.

“Is it really beyond our ministers on both sides of the border to work together to secure the future of an industrial asset with such obvious potential?

“When a changing world means we cannot rely on others for our national security, the failure to recognise Ferguson’s strategic importance is beyond comprehension.”

ENDS