IT WAS a decision which led to the loss of thousands of jobs at the Rosyth naval base in Fife and, a decade on, the full cost to the taxpayer has been revealed as a staggering £300 million.
Ten years ago, when the Tory government awarded a multimillion-pound Trident nuclear submarine contract to the English naval base of Devonport, rather than to Rosyth, serious questions were asked about the motive for the decision.
Ministers of the day, such as Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former defence secretary and MP for Edinburgh Pentlands, pointed to the fact that Devonport had undercut Rosyth by £8 million with its £240 million bid, but supporters of the Fife naval base argued otherwise.
The controversial move was attacked as a politically motivated decision to safeguard Conservative seats in the south of England.