NICOLA Sturgeon has accused George Osborne of arrogance after the Chancellor announced more than £500 million of contracts for the Faslane nuclear submarine base on the Clyde.

Osborne made the announcement on a day trip to the Royal Navy base and was immediately condemned by the First Minister.

Sturgeon said: “I want to see Faslane have a strong future as a conventional naval base, but this is an arrogant decision by the Chancellor to try to pre-empt parliament’s decision on the replacement of Trident.

“It’s also cruelly ironic. This is the same Chancellor who is slashing people’s working tax credits and taking vital support away from disabled people. If the

Chancellor’s got £500m to spend then I think he’d be better advised to spend it on health, education, giving young people the best start in life and reversing some of his cruel attacks on the most vulnerable.”

Sturgeon added that defence funding would be better spent on strong, conventional forces.

“There is a great irony here that at the same time as the Tories want to spend billions – tens of billions – of pounds replacing Trident, the UK has seen deep cuts to conventional forces, we don’t have a single maritime patrol aircraft,” she said.

“Given that we’re an island state, that seems to me to be a real gap in our defences, so let’s invest in proper conventional forces.

"That would include securing the future of Faslane, but let’s not take a decision to spend tens of billions of pounds on nuclear weapons that we don’t need when that money can be better spent elsewhere.”

Brendan O’Hara, the SNP Westminster Defence spokesperson, said the Chancellor’s priorities were all wrong.

He said: “With the UK Government facing a United Nations probe over its cuts to support for disabled people, George Osborne has his priorities all wrong.

“He should be defending the disabled, not his government’s indefensible decision to spend £100 billion on a new generation of nuclear weapons – and this so-called investment in Faslane will directly support the deployment of Trident submarines.

“Indeed, George Osborne is essentially pre-empting a vote and actual decision on renewal of Trident. There is something fundamentally wrong with Westminster’s values and priorities if the Chancellor thinks wasting billions on nuclear weapons is something to boast about when people are dying within our benefits system.”

O’Hara added: “And in defence terms too, at a time when Scotland’s conventional defence footprint has never been smaller with major capability gaps, base closures and personnel numbers at an all-time low, it seems the Treasury apparently has a limitless pot to keep an unwanted and obscene arsenal of nuclear weapons afloat.

“Investment in Faslane is welcome but it must be as a conventional base – and not more money spent on weapons of mass destruction.”

O’Hara said the reality was that Scotland had been hit by “continued, disproportionate cuts to our defence footprint” and had less than 10,000 defence personnel.

“Axing of air bases such as Leuchars, for example, have seen Fife badly hit, with a reduction from 1,770 personnel to just 570 since April 2012,” he said.

“The Tories claim that they are the party of defence and yet we see time after time – they cut the defence footprint in Scotland to the bone to the point where we are left in the absurd situation as a maritime nation without a single maritime patrol aircraft to defend our waters and without the proper conventional naval vessels based in Scotland, whilst Westminster is hell bent on renewing Scotland’s nuclear arsenal.

“With plans by the UK Government to initiate a new Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) this autumn, the Ministry of Defence must rule out further damaging cuts to Scotland’s defence communities who have been hit by job losses, base closures and cuts to key conventional capabilities.”

Osborne’s announcement also drew criticism from Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood, whose party wants Trident scrapped.

She said: “It is perverse to claim that billions should be spent on outdated weapons of mass destruction when so many are being hit by welfare sanctions and struggling with stagnant wages.”

Osborne said the work, due to begin in 2017, would secure 6,700 jobs and create thousands more.

Faslane is home to missile-carrying Vanguard submarines and recently welcomed the third of seven planned Royal Navy Astute class attack submarines. The Successor class is also expected to be based on the Clyde from 2028.

Veteran Faslane campaigners call for more direct action to ensure a nuclear-free Scotland