THOUSANDS of Clyde shipyard workers have been assured their jobs are safe despite the government scrapping plans to build two further Type 45 destroyers.

THOUSANDS of Clyde shipyard workers have been assured their jobs are safe despite the government scrapping plans to build two further Type 45 destroyers.

Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth said it would not be taking up the option to build the seventh and eighth warships once the current contract ends.

Steel cutting began in March at BAE Systems' Govan yard for HMS Duncan, the last of six £600million warships destroyers being built on the Clyde.

But Mr Ainsworth, speaking in the Commons, said: "We do not have unlimited resources. We have to prioritise between a range of competing requirements.

"We have taken a decision not to take the option to order the seventh and eighth Type 45 destroyers."

The Clyde yards' immediate future was safeguarded last month with confirmation both sites will share a £4billion deal for two new aircraft carriers with Portsmouth.

The HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales will be the biggest and most powerful surface warships ever constructed in Britain, and will enter service in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

Glasgow North West MP John Robertson said: "This is obviously disappointing but we do have cause to be optimistic about the future.

"The workforce know that their employment is secure and the Government will continue to back them."

The original intention was to have 12 of the 7350-tonne Type 45s but the figure was cut to eight because of a squeeze on spending and over-runs on other projects including the Nimrod MRA4 jet.

The Daring-class ships were ordered to replace the ageing Type 42s which fought in the Falklands and to bolster the strategic capability of the Govan and Scotstoun yards.

Yard owners BAE Systems had previously stressed that the company had "planned prudently on the basis of six orders".