THE chief corporate affairs officer at Babcock has confirmed that there are no plans to move the Rosyth Shipyard in the case of an independent Scotland.
Babcock’s John Howie said that the firm’s recent £76 million investment into the Rosyth dockyard proved that the site was “a core part of our business strategy” during the Scottish Affairs Committee briefing on Monday.
The comments came after the Prime Minister visited the Rosyth dockyard last week to witness the first of the new Type 31 frigates being built for the Royal Navy.
Following the visit, Babcock CEO David Lockwood suggested that if the firm was not welcome in an independent Scotland it could relocate to England in three years.
He told The Courier: "I don’t think [independence] is anything that we can’t manage as a company.
“When you look at the timelines, there’s nothing we can’t manage as a company.
“If we had to replicate this in England because we were told we weren’t welcome here – which I think would be a bad mistake for Scotland – but if that were the decision, we can replicate this in three years, and the time window of negotiations is longer than that."
READ MORE: Scottish ship builders ‘owed apology’ after Boris Johnson's visit to Rosyth
During the committee briefing on Monday, SNP MP Deidre Brock asked Howie if the SNP had actually said that Babcock would not be welcome in an independent Scotland.
She said: "I wonder if you're able to point to where the SNP has indicated it wouldn't welcome the work that Babcock is doing at its dockyards, all the decommissioning works its undertaking through its subsidiary company, Cavendish. Where [has the SNP] indicated that wouldn't be welcome in an independent Scotland?"
READ MORE: Babcock claims that Rosyth yard could close post-independence rubbished
Howie responded: "Nobody has told us we wouldn't be welcome.”
He went on to say: "We have recently invested £76m in the site at Rosyth - that is a core part of our business strategy.
"I think what chief executive was trying to do was deal with ... there's always competing pieces between shareholders who worry about what constitutional changes mean for business continuity.
"And the reality is that our business can operate from wherever it needs to, but we're not expecting ... we wouldn't have invested that money in the site at Rosyth if we were expecting to make changes to it."
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