TWO North West Labour MPs have joined a lobby to boost submarine building in Barrow following the announcement earlier this year that 700 jobs are to be axed.

On Monday, Bolton MP Neil Turner and Wigan MP Dave Crausby, both members of the Amicus Union, met the manager of BAE Systems Murray Easton during a tour of the site.

The union is campaigning to ensure the shipyard in Barrow gets a follow-on order for more Astute nuclear submarines. The move comes after BAE decided to move work on the Type 45 destroyers from Barrow to its Clyde yard at the same time it announced 700 redundancies.

The Barrow yard has already secured work from the Ministry of Defence to build the first three submarines.

But regional secretary of the Amicus Union John Coyne and Barrow and Furness MP John Hutton, who set up the meeting on Monday, fear that if the yard does not secure the work to build three more submarines, there could be more redundancies in the future.

The union is lobbying the Government to secure the deal to build the three remaining vessels.

May 15, 2003 15:34