We must use Norway shipbuilding deal to get back on the world stage
- jacksinclair4
- Sep 17
- 3 min read
When I wrote about the bright prospects for Clyde shipbuilding in my June column, I mentioned my quiet confidence that a deal to build Type 26 frigates for the Norwegian Navy would be finalised within weeks. When I received a phone call from BAE Systems at the end of August to let me know that Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre had decided that Type 26 had won the competition, I literally punched the air with joy.
I worked on the Type 26 programme before my election to parliament and have actively supported the campaign to secure this contract over the last year. I am immensely proud of what the whole team has achieved in winning it, and I am committed to ensuring that we now maximise its industrial potential.
It was far from a done deal. Rival bids from France’s FDI, Germany’s F126, and the American Constellation-class were fiercely competitive, but the quality of the Glasgow-designed Type 26 stood it in great stead.
Since Labour came to power last year, there has been an all-out effort to secure this landmark shipbuilding contract.
It marks a historic watershed for Glasgow’s shipbuilding industry, which remains our city’s biggest manufacturing employer. This £10 billion deal, the largest single shipbuilding export contract in British history, is not just a triumph for the Clyde but a beacon of hope for the future of Scottish manufacturing.
Not only will it directly sustain more than 2000 jobs at the Govan and Scotstoun shipyards, providing a stable workload for 15 years, but it will also cascade work to 103 businesses across the shipbuilding supply chain, which together support more than 12,000 jobs in Scotland.
Securing the future of our shipbuilding industry is deeply personal to me. Like many Glaswegians, my dad worked in the shipyards. I recall the pride of launch days being overshadowed by the fear that the ship he was working on would be the last. The precarious nature of shipbuilding in the 1990s meant that there was a real sense that every ship might be the last.
When my dad lost his job, I saw his purpose ripped away from him and the effect that had on my family. That is the source of my motivation to play my part in reviving Glasgow’s industry.
The UK Labour Government shares my ambition for reviving industry in Scotland.
The new frigate partnership with our Norwegian neighbours represents the largest surface naval shipbuilding programme in Europe, only rivalled by the US and China.
This demonstrates confidence in Scottish shipbuilding, and it is my hope that we will see more deals brokered to strengthen the order book of BAE Systems in Glasgow and other Scottish shipyards.
We should now use this generational opportunity to develop Scotland's position as a force in world shipbuilding again, leveraging the critical mass of the naval shipbuilding programme to drive commercial shipbuilding growth.
The SNP Scottish Government’s decision to scrap its juvenile ban on support for naval shipbuilding earlier this month is a welcome first step, but it is absurd to see them exporting Scottish jobs to shipyards in Poland and Turkey by awarding contracts for Cal Mac ferries to overseas competitors – rather than Scottish shipyards.
It’s time for the Scottish Government to step up to the plate. We need Scottish public procurement law strengthened to include a mandatory social value weighting so that contracts are no longer going abroad. The Scottish Government should accept the UK Government's offer to extend their recently updated legislation to Scotland. Partnership not posturing is what is needed for industrial success.
You can read my column in the Glasgow Times here:
Comments