Leuchars loses fight to be RAF's home in Scotland

RAF Leuchars has lost its battle with RAF Lossiemouth to remian as the last operating RAF base in Scotland, The Scotsman has been told.

But the Fife base will be handed over the the army to house troops and significant numbers of troops will also be based at RAF Kinloss from 2014 as the Ministry of Defence seeks to increase the number of military personnel in Scotland,

As part of the defence reorganisation, the MoD will at least double the number of troops based in Scotland to more than 6,000 in the next few years, as previously revealed in The Scotsman.

Typhoons currently based at Leuchars will shortly be transferred to Lossiemouth whose Tornados are to be pulled back to Marham in Norfolk, the third RAF base which had been under threat.

The details will be laid out to MPs today by the Defence Secretary Liam Fox.

The review, which was a result of last year's Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), looked at the long-term configuration of bases and where to base troops who will be withdrawn from Germany over the next few years, with all of them brought back to British bases by 2015.

The moves are part of attempts by Mr Fox to see off any threat of the SNP using declining military numbers in Scotland as another reason to persuade the electorate to vote yes in the independence referendum expected in the next few years.

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He hopes that by more than doubling the army and also increasing the number of navy personnel at Faslane with the arrival of Astute class submarines, he will be able to more than compensate for the 54 per cent reduction in RAF personnel.

An MoD source said: "The Defence Secretary has always said he wants to keep a defence footprint in Scotland. It's expected that the military presence will actually increase over the coming years."

The revelation that Kinloss will not be mothballed or closed altogether and has a future as a base will come as a relief to communities in Moray which are highly dependent on defence spending.

However, the wait of almost four years from when the base ended its association with the RAF with the cancellation of the new Nimrods will be a concern because of the economic gap it leaves.

The MoD has made it clear it will provide no support in the interim.

There will be concern in Fife too with the most optimistic MoD assessment of when the army could arrive being ten months - with two years more likely.

Last night North East Fife Lib Dem MP Sir Menzies Campbell was said to be "furious" with the outcome but had been advised that the fight was lost.

His campaign to save the base started late because he had been assured it was safe and it only began in November as a result of revelations in The Scotsman that it had been dragged into the review.

While Moray SNP MP Angus Robertson has been the political face of the campaign for Lossiemouth, privately sources close to Sir Menzies blamed Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem Chief Treasury Secretary, who put his weight behind the campaign to keep the RAF in Moray at the expense of Leuchars.

Many people in Mr Alexander's Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey constituency work at Lossiemouth.

Previously it has been briefed that Fort George, currently the home of the Black Watch and in Mr Alexander's constituency, will be closed in the next few years as part of the base review.

Meanwhile there has been speculation that as the Royal Marines will be leaving RM Condor in Arbroath for the south-west of England, that base could become an army barracks too.

Craigiehall in Edinburgh could also become an army barracks as the MoD tries to find accommodation space for thousands of troops coming from Germany which could include the Highlanders infantry battalion and Royal Scots Dragoon Guards heavy armour battalion.

The final decision on the bases review was delayed because of the Scottish Parliament elections and the "complexity" of moving different parts of the forces around.

Last night Labour's shadow Scottish Secretary Ann McKechin said: "These plans appear to be years not months away from implementation.

"If any Scottish base is to close then we must have a clear undertaking from the UK government that these communities will be treated fairly and an immediate action plan is put in place to support people locally."

Mr Robertson, who is also the SNP's defence spokesman, said: "It seems probable that Scotland will be left with only one military airbase and limited operational capabilities.

"This is totally unacceptable."