SPANISH shipbuilders have been given government contracts to build new support vessels for the Royal Navy in what unions called a betrayal of Britain’s workforce.

The £1.6 billion contract for three Royal Navy support vessels has gone to a consortium led by Belfast-based Harland and Wolff.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said that the announcement is a “significant boost” to Britain’s shipbuilding industry. 

The Ministry of Defence says the work will create 1,200 jobs in British shipyards.

But much of the work will be contracted to Spanish firm Navantia and be undertaken in Cadiz.

Shadow defence secretary John Healey said that the decision is “a betrayal of British jobs and British business.”

He said: “Ministers have rejected a big opportunity to boost our economy and strengthen our sovereign industrial capability at a time when threats are increasing.”

Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy said that the decision was “terrible, short-sighted” and a missed opportunity to support British shipbuilding.

“At a time when the economy is struggling, it is short-sighted in the extreme to go with a bid that takes most of the high-value work and intellectual property overseas,” he said.

“Spain will be delighted with the government’s approach to levelling up. It is now essential that the government does all it can to maximise the small amount of work going to British yards.”

Birkenhead Labour MP Mick Whitley said that he was “genuinely dismayed” that after three years of lobbying to secure work for his constituents in Cammell Laird, the government has chosen to hand the contract to a Spanish-led consortium.