Fox signals backing for £5bn Clyde navy ships

LIAM Fox has given his strongest signal yet that a Conservative UK government would commit itself to the two gigantic aircraft carriers being built on the Clyde.

On a visit to Scotland, the shadow defence secretary said he was "well-disposed" to the 5 billion vessels, on which 4,600 jobs on the Clyde and at Rosyth depend.

The future of the two ships, to be called the Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales, has been the subject of much speculation since the project was included in a strategic defence review to be published after the election.

"I'm personally quite keen on the concept of aircraft carriers and I'm quite confident in allowing the defence review to look at them, because if you want to see Britain's role projected you have to have air power to project," Fox said.

"I think you could say that I was instinctively well disposed to them."

Fox, however, stopped short of guaranteeing the future of the ships being built by Costs BVT.

"I have spoken often of Britain's need for external power projection and the carriers are a central part of that. I wouldn't expect there to be much change in policy, although we will have to look at cost and we will have to look at aircraft mix as well," Fox said.

"My problem is that we don't get to see the contracts, we've no idea what the spend is that we're actually committed to and the timescale and the government won't show us it. The government put lots of break clauses into the carrier contract, but we don't know what they are or how much they are."

The only programme the Conservatives have committed to saving is the replacement for the Trident nuclear deterrent.