The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is expected to unveil long-awaited good news for shipbuilders on the Clyde today.
Unions hope that the announcement will be confirmation of a date to start work building eight Type 26 frigates - almost six months after steel was due to be cut.
The project has been hit by repeated delays, alongside warnings that up to 800 jobs could be lost.
Union leaders threatened large-scale industrial action after they were told in May that original plans to start had been postponed.
The Type 26 Global Combat Ships are due to be built by BAE Systems at its yards in Govan and Scotstoun.
But in June, the Conservative Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said that no deal to build the warships would be signed until it offered "value for money".
The row has led to accusations that the Tory Government risks betraying commitments made before the 2014 independence referendum.
Then voters were told rejecting independence would protect thousands of shipbuilding jobs.
MoD ministers recently confirmed that the Government's review of shipbuilding would be published before this month’s Autumn Statement.
But SNP MP Martin Docherty-Hughes accused ministers of causing "enormous damage" with the delay and said the Clyde yards could not "wait any more".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel