A WIRRAL MP has expressed "dismay and anger" over the Government's decision to award a Navy supply ships contract to a Spanish-led consortium.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced this week that the £1.6bn contact to build the navy’s Fleet Solid Support Ships (FSS) will be awarded to the Spanish led consortium, Team Resolute.

Birkenhead MP Mick Whitley described the news as a "complete betrayal" of the local workforce.

He said: "I am genuinely dismayed that after almost three years of discussing, lobbying, organising debates in order to secure work for my constituents in Cammell Laird and for workers in shipyards all across Britain, the government has chosen to condemn an entire industry to an uncertain fate and hand the contract to a Spanish-led consortium.

"I am furious that after having had to endure the showboating of Boris Johnson when he visited Birkenhead to announce his National Ship Building Strategy refresh earlier this year, Cammell Laird and the other companies who comprised the Team UK bid have now been betrayed by this government."

This decision has been trailed in the press for some time. The Telegraph reported two weeks ago that Team Resolute had won – even though the final decision was not supposed to be announced until March 2023.

Mr Whitley continued: "The utter contempt shown by the government for the Team UK is highlighted by the fact that Wallace’s announcement was not in Parliament – where the issue has long been debated – but in a written statement that means he avoids questions.

"This is now how the Tories operate – bypass Parliament and use the press.

"Our jobs, our lives and our towns don’t matter to the Tories. But they matter to me, and they matter to Labour which is why I am urging Parliament to debate this issue."

The Team Resolute decision was justified on the grounds that British shipbuilding company, Harland and Wolff – in both Belfast and Appledore Devon – will also participate in the bid. But it is clear that much of the work will be based in Cadiz, Spain. And the overall impact of accepting the Spanish bid will not bring the kind of revival of British shipbuilding that was promised as recently as March this year.

The independent journal of naval affairs, Navy Lookout, pointed out: “Harland and Wolff will have to rely heavily on Navantia – the prime contractors of the consortium – having only a small workforce and no recent record of naval shipbuilding.”

The journal had warned back in August out that if the Navantia led bid won, “This will put the government in a tricky position as the much-vaunted National Shipbuilding Strategy would look completely incoherent if Team UK does not win.

"Compared with the 1000 jobs Ben Wallace mentioned in his statement on the FSS decision, Team UK’s bid – comprising the involvement of BAE, Babcock Engineering and Cammell Laird – would have sustained 2,000 jobs in the industry, created 1,500 jobs in the supply chains, and 2,500 in the communities of Birkenhead, Govan, Rosyth and Barrow.

"It would have meant the work taking place in the UK and would have been a shot in the arm for local economies in some of our most deprived towns.

"Instead of this what we have is a complete betrayal of our shipyards, their workers and our communities. Levelling up? This exposes this policy as the cruel and deceitful lie it really is."