SHIPBUILDERS on the Clyde have been told they should be pleased with with the UK Government by a Tory minister who accused MPs raising concerns from trade unions of spreading “doom and gloom”.

Speaking at Defence Questions in the House of Commons yesterday, Harriet Baldwin, Minister for Defence Procurement, said the amount of work should be enough to keep Scots “happy”.

The UK Government originally promised 13 Type 26 frigates would be built on the Clyde. That was then slashed to eight, and, currently only three contracts have been signed.

Last week unions accused the UK Government of betrayal after a £1.25 billion order for five new warships looked sure to go to Merseyside.

BAE Systems, signed a deal with Cammell Laird, to “prime, build and assemble” those five Type 31e vessels at their Birkenhead base.

Though the tender process is still open, it seems inconceivable that the new conglomerate won’t win the billion pound contract.

Duncan McPhee, a senior shop steward with the Unite union at BAE systems at Scotstoun, said: “We are not happy, these are ships we would have expected to be built on the Clyde.

“As far as we are concerned they should have been part of the 13-ship package we were clearly promised.

“We were told then we would have the order for 13 frigates. Now we are down to eight and the five cut-price frigates, which will not be built here.”

He said the pledges had been made when the workforce were urged to accept restructuring at the cost of nearly 2,000 jobs on the Clyde and in Portsmouth in order to equip BAE systems for the future.

McPhee added: “This work should have been concentrated in Glasgow. The government is trying to introduce a failed policy for complex naval ships, which is to have open competition within a country.

“None of our peer countries do that — France, Italy, Spain, Germany, certainly the US. They have what is called a national champion to provide complex naval ships.

“We had this failed policy in the past. If we go back to the 1980s, we had internal competition where shipyards went bust taking on contracts that they couldn’t deliver.”

SNP MP Chris Stephens raised the unions’ concerns in Parliament yesterday, asking the minister to respond to claims “promises made”had “been broken by the Ministry of Defence”.

Stephens also asked the minister to reconsider government plans to put three other ships out to international tender.

Baldwin replied: “Well honestly Mr Speaker, every time I come and talk about our wonderful record of shipbuilding in the UK I hear nothing but doom and gloom from our friends on the Scottish nationalist benches.

“When in fact, and no one would believe this, there are currently 15 ships being built in Scotland, including the second of the two new aircraft carriers, two decades worth of work in the frigate programme, five new offshore vessels, and frankly Mr Speaker, I don’t know what I could do to keep these gentlemen and ladies happy.”

Stephens said Baldwin’s answer was “disappointing”.

Last week, Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, visiting shipyards in Scotstoun at the official naming of HMS Medway.

He told reporters: “Don’t worry about the SNP. They’re a miserable lot.”

Speaking later in Glasgow, he said: “No other industry in Britain has as much certainty as those who work in shipbuilding.

Fallon said: “There’s 20 years of work guaranteed for the Clyde now and BAE Systems are teaming up with Cammell Laird to bid for the Type 31 as well.”

The Defence Secretary said he was confident about the future of the industry.

“It will be a powerful bid combining the skills and expertise here with Cammell Laird but there will be other bidders as well, and other yards, but I expect a very strong bid from BAE-Cammel Laird and that means the skills here on the Clyde will be re-employed again,” he said.

During the referendum campaign, the future of Clydeside’s naval shipyards and an order for 13 frigates were a key battleground.

Workers on the Clyde were warned that “separation shuts shipyards”.