UNITE in Scotland warned yesterday that shipyard workers will not accept any form of redundancies as a result of the delay to the construction of eight new Royal Navy warships.

Unite convener at BAE Systems’s Scotstoun yard in Glasgow Duncan McPhee said it will be difficult to retain jobs if the delay to the Type 26 warships rolls on indefinitely but that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has a duty to maintain a standing qualified workforce.

The MoD’s chief executive for equipment Tony Douglas told MPs on Wednesday that no start date had yet been set for the work because the design of the warships was only 60 per cent complete.

The MoD has denied that a shortage of money is behind the delay, despite the fact that former first sea lord Admiral Lord West said last month that cutting steel had been postponed till after 2016 because “there’s almost no money available this year, and we are really strapped next year.”

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland Mr McPhee said: “The one thing the trade unions and the workforce will not be accepting is any redundancies. We have been through our redundancy programme and we won’t entertain any more of that.”