The largest warship ever built for the Royal Navy was officially named by the Queen at a ceremony in Rosyth yesterday.

A crowd of 3,500 workers involved in the design and construction of the 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth attended the ceremony at the Fife dockyard where she was assembled.

They were joined by dignitaries including Prime Minister David Cameron, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and Labour leader Ed Miliband.

Mr Cameron described the boat as “a national instrument of power and influence.”

The naming ceremony did little to calm the storm which has raged around the future of Scottish shipbuilding following the independence referendum in September.

The SNP has continued to insist that Scottish yards can compete for and win contracts for British warships even if Scotland became independent.

The parties opposed to a Yes vote have argued that there would be no future naval orders coming to what would be a foreign country.

Mr Cameron said yesterday: “If the UK stays together, as I hope it will, Glasgow and Scotland will continue to be an absolute centre of excellence in terms of shipbuilding.”

Asked about fears for shipbuilding in an independent Scotland, Alex Salmond said the Rosyth yard was going to be “in the market for jobs for many, many years to come and will do outstandingly well in a range of market places, even although it won’t inevitably be building aircraft carriers again.”