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The Fife dockyard inv

olved in assembling the Royal Navy's new generation of aircraft carriers has been rocked by news it is set to lose 250 jobs.

Babcock confirmed the staff cuts at Rosyth Dockyard, where around 1,900 staff are currently employed.

While the SNP's defence procurement spokesman described the job losses as a "crushing blow", the firm said the posts are being dropped following a reduction in work as the £6 billion project for two 65,000-tonne aircraft carriers nears completion.

HMS Queen Elizabeth set sail from Rosyth in June, while her sister ship HMS Prince of Wales is almost ready to set sail and is expected to carry out sea trials in 2019.

Babcock said in a statement: "The prospects for Babcock's operations at Rosyth remain good. The last 10 years of the Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) carrier programme has been an outstanding success story.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

"Unfortunately, given the one-off nature of this large-scale programme, as the ships begin to be handed over to our customer, we must inevitably reshape our business to remain competitive and take on new challenges, which we firmly believe exist for Rosyth."

SNP defence procurement spokesman Douglas Chapman said: "It is a crushing blow for the staff hit by this announcement, particularly at this time of year.

"Only yesterday I asked the Secretary of State for Defence at Westminster what reassurances he can give to workers at Rosyth following the departure of the carriers and if he would visit Rosyth.

"Now - less than 24 hours later - this dreadful news is delivered to dockyard workers.

"It is deeply worrying that these jobs are lost as the UK Government launches their new industrial strategy.

(Image: WENN.com)

"The Secretary of State said he was incredibly grateful for the amazing work the Rosyth workforce have done on the carriers - but people in my constituency cannot live on a Tory minister's platitudes.

"They need follow-on contracts and deals."

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Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie called on the Government to "work harder" to prevent large-scale loss of skilled workers.

He said: "The boom and bust approach in the warship building sector is expensive and wasteful of skills and expertise.

"Although a lot of work was done to smooth out the peaks and troughs of employment for the carriers, the Government must work even harder to prevent the large-scale loss of skilled workers in the future. "