Liam Fox unveils defence plan 'to save Union'

In his long-awaited bases review yesterday, Dr Fox emphasised that the threat of an independence referendum from the SNP-run Scottish Government had played a significant part in the way he has decided to reconfigure the armed forces across the UK.

So while the regular strength of the British Army is to be chopped by 17,000 in the next few years, the numbers of troops in Scotland will increase from 3,000 to 6,500, as first revealed in The Scotsman.

Dr Fox, who originally comes from East Kilbride and was a GP in Edinburgh, told MPs: "This is a very important issue for this country because we will all have to face up to the question of potential independence in Scotland and the plans being laid by the Scottish Government.

"And we will want to look to see what the proper basing should be for a United Kingdom."

Army units being pulled back from Germany to help form a new mobile brigade in Scotland will also be based at a new purpose-built barracks at Kirknewton, near Edinburgh. The construction of this new facility will be funded by the sell-off of the existing barracks at Craigiehall, Dreghorn and Redford. The closure of Craigiehall also confirms that, despite the increase in army numbers in Scotland, it will be losing its headquarters - with the post currently held by Major General David Shaw to be abolished and handed to a general at the army's base in Aldershot, Hampshire.

Troops are also to be based at HMS Caledonia in Rosyth in a surprise announcement, while a last-minute reprieve for Fort George near Inverness in Lib Dem Chief Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander's constituency means the Black Watch will probably remain there. The barracks at Stirling is also safe.

• Analysis: Fox digs in for the Union with a strategy of military dividend for Scotland

• Great relief sweeps Moray - but decision comes too late for some

But the biggest hit will come to the RAF in Scotland which will be reduced in strength from around 4,700 to 2,500 personnel, with RAF Leuchars in Fife joining RAF Kinloss in Moray in being turned over to the army to provide new barracks by 2015.

Scotland's only remaining RAF base will be Lossiemouth in Moray, which will be the home to Typhoon fighter jets from 2013 instead of Leuchars.

The decision to end Leuchars' association with the RAF - which stretches back to 1920 - was condemned by the local MP and former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell, who was praised by Dr Fox for the "passionate" campaign he had waged to keep it.

Sir Menzies had managed to almost save the base for the RAF in the closing weeks before the review by raising its importance as a rapid-reaction base. He had claimed that removing the RAF from the base would increase the risk of a 9/11-type attack in the UK.

Yesterday he said: "I cannot support the decision not to retain Leuchars in my constituency as an RAF base because I believe it to be fundamentally wrong, strategically inept and likely to increase the risk to our citizens."

But Dr Fox told him that the base was deemed more suitable for the army because of its location near the Central Belt, while Lossiemouth had a slightly stronger strategic case.

It is understood that "two significant units" of the army, possibly the Highlanders and Royal Scots Dragoons based in Germany, will move in 2015, but Dr Fox promised a gradual draw-down of the RAF units to allow for minimum impact on the local economy.

A decision made in the autumn to base the Astute class submarines in Faslane means that there is a net increase of 1,200 in the navy in Scotland, although the 500 Royal Marines currently at RM Condor in Arbroath will be pulled back to the south-west of England in the next five to six years, as previously revealed in The Scotsman.

But the announcement failed to impress the SNP's defence spokesman Angus Robertson, although he did welcome the saving of Lossiemouth in his Moray constituency.

He said: "The UK Government had the opportunity to reverse more than a decade of decline in Scotland's military footprint, but has instead confirmed further massive and disproportionate cuts to the RAF and Royal Marines, as well as the closure of military facilities.

"We are also losing military facilities including Craigiehall, Redford Barracks, Dreghorn Barracks and the Air Rescue Co-ordination Centre at Kinloss."

But Dr Fox hit back: "I would have thought that on a day when the government was announcing a substantial uplift to the defence footprint in Scotland, when we are seeing an extra 2,500 job posts in Scotland, you might have welcomed something the government was doing.

"This government has brought stability back to the defence footprint in Scotland. It has potentially brought extra investment to parts of Scotland which you have been clamouring for. I might have thought that a 'thank you' on behalf of your constituents would have passed your lips."

The announcement came as Dr Fox also unveiled an increase in the Territorial Army and reserve forces for the other services with a 1.5 billion investment over the next ten years as part of a wide-ranging shake-up of the UK's military.

It is planned that the TA will grow to make up about 30 per cent of the 120,000 strong army.

Dr Fox also announced a commitment for a one per cent-a-year real-terms increase in the defence equipment and support budget from 2015/16 to 2020/21.

This he claimed would help fund 14 new Chinook helicopters, as well as catapult launching mechanisms for both the new aircraft carriers being built on the Clyde. This appears to suggest the government may be rethinking its decision last autumn to mothball one of the carriers.Labour's shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy accused Dr Fox of going back on promises of "thousands of extra troops" made by the Tories when they were in opposition. "The army has been slashed to cover up the funding gaps left by the rushed defence review," he said.

Former defence secretary Bob Ainsworth added: "There are people on both sides of this House who worry that it's not the strength that we can't afford, but it's the weakness that we potentially can't afford and we have not had any debate about this massive demise in our military capability."

This cannot be other than a disappointment for campaigners who had been battling to keep both bases open. But harsh reality can only be staved off for so long. Page 30