BAE stops shipbuilding in Portsmouth – in pictures

Staff at BAE Systems wave as Duncan, the Type 45 Destroyer, leaves the firm's Scotstoun yard in March and heads to HM Naval Base Portsmouth before the official handover to the Royal Navy. The shipyard will close by the end of 2015, with heavy job losses there and in Scotland Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

Shipyard workers put the finishing touches to RFA Mounts Bay, a new landing ship built for the Royal Navy at Govan in Glasgow in 2004. The defence giant has announced that 940 shipbuilding jobs will go in Portsmouth and 835 in Glasgow, far more than previously expected. But the jobs of an additional 2,900 BAE staff employed in maintaining and servicing Royal Navy ships at the Portsmouth naval base are not affected Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

An employee welds components at the BAE Systems Govan dockyard in Glasgow in 2010. The cuts come after BAE Systems experienced the biggest peak in UK shipbuilding since the second world war, led by the £5.4bn aircraft carrier programme that saw BAE share its allocation of the work across Portsmouth, Govan and Scotstoun. The next BAE project for the Royal Navy, the Type 26 combat ship, is not big enough to sustain all three sites Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Interior of blockmill at HM Dockyard, Portsmouth, c1900. The end of shipbuilding in Portsmouth brings the curtain down on more than 500 years of the industry in a city that built the Tudor warship the Mary Rose Photograph: Science & Society Picture Librar/Getty Images

Workers at the BAE Systems yard at Govan on the Clyde stand on a section of a Royal Navy aircraft carrier. Closing one of the Scottish yards would have become a political flashpoint before next year's referendum, with pro-union campaigners warning that closing the shipyards could hand victory to Alex Salmond's nationalist campaign Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The then secretary of state for Scotland, Michael Moore, visits the partially complete HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier in Rosyth dockyard in July. The ship is due to begin sea trials towards the end of the decade. A decision will not be taken until 2015 about whether a second carrier, Prince of Wales, will ever be operational Photograph: Getty Images

Barrels are unloaded from a ship in Portsmouth Dock, c1900. Winding down shipbuilding at Portsmouth means the MoD will have to bear costs that could run into hundreds of millions of pounds under a 2009 agreement guaranteeing BAE a minimum of £230m a year in shipbuilding and support work over 15 years. The agreement can be cancelled, but the MoD would be liable for closure costs and compensation to BAE for its lost investment. Photograph: FJ Mortimer/Getty Images

Onlookers wave to the HMS Daring, built at the BAE Systems shipyard, as it sets sail for sea trials from Glasgow in 2007. Responding to the job cuts announcement, Hugh Scullion, general secretary of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, said: 'Getting an agreement which avoids the need for compulsory redundancies will be central to our discussions with the company. The CSEU will also make it a priority to protect the future of the UK shipbuilding industry by securing investment to ensure the industry doesn't just survive but prospers in the future.' Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

HMS Hood arrives in Portsmouth, c1930. The end of shipbuilding at Portsmouth is a huge blow to the city, where local politicians suspect political considerations before the Scottish referendum next year have put it in the line of fire Photograph: Imagno/Getty Images

Royal Navy personnel wave on board the Type 45 Destroyer Duncan as it leaves Scotstoun yard. Gerald Vernon-Jackson, leader of Portsmouth council, questioned why a decision was being taken before the referendum. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme before the announcement, he said: 'Portsmouth is the last place in England that has the ability to build advanced warships for the Royal Navy and I'm very concerned that with a potential independence vote in Scotland, if Portsmouth shipbuilding is shut down, what would remain of the UK would have no ability to build advanced warships.' Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA