A £1billion order for Royal Navy supply ships is being steered towards a Spanish naval yard in a shoddy Brexit deal over Gibraltar, trade unions fear.
Senior GMB officials are furious over reports that the Navantia naval dockyard in the north of Spain has been chosen to build Fleet Solid Support vessels.
Navantia is one of five bids in the running for the contract.
The only UK company competing is Babcock, which will send part of the work to the Rosyth yard in Fife.
GMB Scotland Secretary Gary Smith said: “We have been clear that the contracts for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) vessels hold the key to the transformation of our shipbuilding sector.
“Three 40,000-ton vessels would provide years of work for yards like Rosyth, where we are haemorrhaging jobs.”
Smith said reports from industry sources signalled that Navantia would be given the contract in an attempt to buy the Spanish government’s silence over territorial claims to Gibraltar in Brexit negotiations.
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He added: “Our fear is that working class shipbuilding communities have just had their futures sold down the river as a result of grubby Brexit politics.
“Against the backdrop of a ruinous Brexit, the loss of the RFAs would be an absolute betrayal of the UK shipbuilding sector by the Tory Government.”
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “We are required by law to procure the Fleet Solid Support ships through open international competition.
“We issued formal tender documents to bidders in late 2018. The final decision regarding the winning bid will be made in 2020.”
Unions are already angry that steel work for an offshore windfarm in Kincardine is going to the Navantia yard.
Smith said: “We’re losing 1000 jobs at Rosyth over 18 months, there are jobs lost at Burntisland in Fife and, meanwhile, work for the renewables industry is going to Spain.
“Now it looks like the three solid support vessels are going there too. I’ll bet a pound for a penny, it is to do with Gibraltar.”
Scots politicians have campaigned for years to have the deal awarded to UK yards to help Roysth fill the gap between the end of the Supercarrier contract and the beginning of the Type 26 frigate order.
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SNP defence spokesman Stewart McDonald MP and Scottish Labour MP Paul Sweeney said awarding the contracts abroad would amount to a Brexit betrayal.
Sweeney said: “The £1billion contract has a multiplier effect worth £350million to the UK economy if the ships are built here and assembled in Rosyth.”
McDonald added: “The Tories are gearing up for a sell-out of British shipbuilding.
“It sounds fickle that the Spanish are going to shut up on Gibraltar for a ship contract but entirely believable that the Tory Government would think that.”
