Engineering news
Defence firm BAE Systems has announced it plans to axe 1,775 jobs and end shipbuilding at one the country's most historic industrial sites.
The firm said 940 jobs will be lost in Portsmouth and a further 835 in Glasgow, Rosyth and Filton, near Bristol.
Shipbuilding operations will end in Portsmouth in the second half of next year, but an engineering team will be retained to support the new Type 26 warships, which will be built in Glasgow.
Unions said the job losses were a "devastating blow" to the industry, while some politicians said Portsmouth was being hit harder than yards in Scotland because of the independence referendum in Scotland next year.
Gerald Vernon-Jackson, leader of Portsmouth City Council, condemned the decision to shut down the last remaining shipyard in England with the capability to build advanced surface warships, saying it was bad news for the defence of the UK and for the Royal Navy.
"The remaining yards with the capability to build advanced warships are in Scotland, and the referendum on Scottish independence is less than one year away. Ministers have put the defence of the UK and the future of the Navy at real risk," he said.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond told the Commons that every effort would be made to redeploy workers, and that compulsory redundancies would be kept to a minimum.
"The loss of a shipmaking capability will be a harsh blow to Portsmouth," said the minister, who announced that more than £100 million will be invested in the city's naval base so it can accommodate new warships.
Three new offshore patrol vessels for the Royal Navy will be built on the Clyde in Scotland.
The contract with BAE will provide work between the completion of the current aircraft carriers and the start of the building of Type 26 combat ships.
The minister said that following a review, the cost of the carriers was £6.2 billion, meaning the defence budget will remain "in balance".
"The loss of such a significant number of jobs is of course regrettable, but it was always going to be inevitable as the workload on carrier build came to an end."
BAE said it remained committed to continued investment in Portsmouth as the centre of its maritime services and high-end naval equipment and combat systems businesses, but that it was being hit by a "significant" reduction in workload following the peak of activity on the aircraft carrier programme.
Ships have been built at Portsmouth for centuries. The Tudor warship Mary Rose was built there in 1509 and ships sailed from Portsmouth to ward off the Spanish Armada in 1588. The first iron-hulled warship, HMS Warrior was built in Portsmouth and the Portsmouth-built Dreadnought gave its name to a whole class of ships following its introduction in 1906. Despite being heavily bombed, the naval city played a key role during the Second World War.
The last ship to built entirely at Portsmouth was the HMS Andromeda, which was launched in 1967
Do you think BAE Systems is to blame for the job losses and closure or the Government? Is Portsmouth being shut down for the right reasons? Leave your views below.