Scotland base closures ‘could threaten Norwegian military ties’

British Defence Secretary Liam Fox was yesterday warned that closer military ties with Norway could be jeopardised by base closures in Scotland.

Dr Fox will this week head to Oslo to discuss closer co-operation on defence matters.

But SNP spokesman Angus Robertson warned that decisions contained in the Strategic Defence and Security Review undermined the UK’s ability to work with the Norwegians.

At Commons question time he said: “The Secretary of State this week will be in Oslo for meetings with Nordic defence ministers.

“How will he convince them that he is serious, having just scrapped the UK’s maritime reconnaissance fleet, is thinking about moving the joint combat aircraft away from the north of Scotland and is considering closing both air bases closest to Norway?”

RAF Lossiemouth faces the axe as a result of the SDSR, with its fleet of Tornados potentially being based elsewhere.

Nearby RAF Kinloss is set to close following the decision to scrap the Nimrod reconnaissance plane.

Dr Fox said he would point out to the Norwegians the range of military capabilities the UK was maintaining.

He said: “I shall be pointing out to them our commitment to the submarine programme, I shall be pointing out our commitment to the aircraft carrier programme and how we intend to ensure that across the range of capabilities the United Kingdom is a sound and secure Nato partner.

“The purpose of the meeting in Norway is to ensure that we deepen our bilateral relationship with Norway, that we create a Nato entity which Finland and Sweden feel a little more comfortable with.”

The UK would give “further security” to the Nato Article 5 provision for mutual defence in the Baltic states “by being a nuclear power as part of that grouping”.

The talks would also “ensure that as a Nato grouping we are better able to deal with regional disputes with Russia”.

Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy also called on Dr Fox to rethink the possible closure of RAF Lossiemouth.

He said: “This base accounts for about 10 per cent of jobs in the area. Some will argue that this proposed closure saves the MoD money.

“But in truth other parts of Government will have to pick up the cost of increased unemployment and the failure of small businesses.

“Can I urge you to pause and think again about the devastating wider impacts this proposed closure would have?”

Dr Fox said: “Neither party in this coalition wanted to see redundancies in the armed forces and we wouldn’t be making redundancies in the armed forces had we not been handed an utterly poisonous economic legacy by the party opposite or indeed a Ministry of Defence budget that was massively overheated and incompetently run.”

He said the Government was “very well aware” of the social, economic and regional consequences of military base closures.