Redundancies for city soldiers revealed under MoD cuts

SCORES of soldiers have been made redundant at barracks in Edinburgh, new figures show.

In answer to a parliamentary question at Westminster from SNP defence spokesman Angus Robertson, the UK Government revealed the breakdown of how many service personnel were made 
redundant at each base across Scotland in the three tranches of job losses that have been announced so far. The job losses were expected.

According to the figures, there were a total of 40 redundancies at the city’s Redford Barracks, 50 at nearby Dreghorn and 30 at Glencorse, near Penicuik.

Mr Robertson said: “Our first thoughts are with the 520 service personnel across Scotland who have been made redundant by Westminster in these austerity cuts.

“The numbers may be expected but they are still shocking to the communities they hit, and reflect the series of 
betrayals and U-turns by Westminster on defence issues in Scotland.

“Westminster is handing out P45s to dedicated service personnel on the one hand, while sending ministers to Scotland as part of Project Fear to scaremonger about defence in an independent Scotland – the hypocrisy of the UK Government is 
shameful.

“Meanwhile, the Scottish Government has said that all service personnel should have a reassurance of never being faced with compulsory redundancy during their service 
contract.”