MINISTERS must commit to basing the next generation of frigate warships in Plymouth, trade unionists urged yesterday.

The city’s Devonport naval base has recently been stripped of submarine base-porting — which has relocated to Faslane, on the Clyde.

Its amphibious assault ship HMS Ocean is to be decommissioned next year and unions say it is rumoured that HMS Albion, HMS Bulwark and HMS Scott could follow. This could leave Devonport with just three survey ships by the 2030s.

Then from 2023 the Devonport-based type-23 frigates will start the process of decommissioning — which could raise fears about the yard’s long-term future.

Now a confederation of workers from general unions GMB and Unite are lobbying local MPs to join the campaign to guarantee the base’s sustainability. They say this can be done if the government commits to hosting the next generation of frigates in Plymouth.

“Should the government choose not to base these ships at Devonport it could lead to a major long-term reduction of work, threatening not only the naval base but the wider dockyard and its lucrative maintenance and refit work operated by Babcock International Group,” confederation district chairman Matthew Roberts said.

“There is a good case for us to have the new frigates here with the size, facilities and capability of the yard and its workforce and the popularity of the city and local area with naval personnel and officers.”

The government has announced that all the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers will be based at Portsmouth, protecting the naval base there for the next 50 years.

But Mr Roberts said: “Put simply, Devonport is the biggest and the best.”