Defence Review: Call For RAF Fife Return

The SNP is calling on the Government to consider bringing a proposed maritime air patrol to Fife.

That is ahead of today's defence review at Westminster. The focus is likely to be on the growing terror threat following the events in Paris and subsequent raids in Brussels.

The RAF was based in Leuchars, North East Fife, until April 2015.

Dunfermline and West Fife MP sits on the Parliamentary defence committee. He says it is likely that the RAF will return to Scotland, he hopes Fife will be considered as a location:

SNP Defence spokesperson Brendan O’Hara said: "David Cameron must address the concerns that the UK is now facing a defence capability gap - because of years of indiscriminate cuts - that is now potentially hampering our ability to respond to a new raft of threats .
 
"Decisions at Westminster have seen Scotland stripped of military assets and serving personnel handed redundancy notices, with more than 11,000 defence jobs lost in Scotland in the last decade. Yet while all of these deeply damaging cuts have been inflicted by Westminster, this Government remains committed to wasting up to £167 billion on replacing Trident even though new threats and dangers are emerging for which Trident will be completely useless.
 
"As a consequence of the endless and savage cuts coming from the MoD  even the Chief of the Defence staff, Sir Nicholas Houghton, warned that defence  cuts were so severe that the UK could be left with the ‘spectre of a hollowed-out’ force"

'Disastrous' 2010 review

Labour’s Shadow Scottish Secretary, Ian Murray MP, said: "As the workers themselves said today, this is great news for shipbuilding on the Clyde and for the industries that support it across Scotland. The review also gives a much needed boost to RAF Lossiemouth.

"After the disastrous review of 2010 which causes damage to our armed forces and to our bases in Scotland, we have to ensure more than ever that the Tories stay true to their word.

"The Tories have never been a friend of Clyde shipbuilding in the past, so we will look at the detail of the shipbuilding strategy that the Prime Minister has promised today and hold him to his promise of at least thirteen frigates built in Govan. The Prime Minister held out the hope of even more being built for export. We want to see that scale of ambition in black and white in the strategy.

"This does not just ensure the security of jobs on the Clyde, but with the export potential for these vessels, we may once again see Clydebuilt ships sent around the world. The Tory Government needs to hold true to their promise so that these orders do not just save shipbuilding on the Clyde, but ensure that the Clyde can flourish once again."