The announcement on the shipyards, which is expected today, is part of a maritime defence review launched by BAE systems 18 months ago. Last November Nigel Whitehead, the UK chief executive of BAE, told The Sunday Telegraph the defence giant expected "a reduction in footprint," with the future of shipbuilding at Portsmouth and its two bases in Glasgow, at Govan and Scotstoun, in the spotlight. "Part of that might actually be the cessation of manufacturing at one of the sites," he said at the time. Mike Hancock Portsmouth South MP said this morning that the closure was a "catastrophe" for Portsmouth and a "personal tragedy" for the workers that are set to lose their jobs. Gerald Vernon-Jackson, the leader of Portsmouth council, questioned why a decision was being taken before the referendum on Scottish independence. He told the BBC Radio Four's Today programme: "Portsmouth is the last place in England that has the ability to build advanced warships for the Royal Navy and I'm very concerned that with a potential independence vote in Scotland, if Portsmouth shipbuilding is shut down, what would remain of the UK would have no ability to build advanced warships." He added that the closure would have a huge impact on the people of Portsmouth and could lead to the Royal Navy buying ships from abroad. He said: "It would just mean either that that would have to change and the Royal Navy would have to buy ships from France or Germany - or we'd have to spend a huge amount of public money re-employing people, re-skilling people here in Portsmouth." Harry Donaldson, Scottish secretary of the GMB union, said it was "disgraceful" that politicians were looking at the shipyards "as a political football." He said: "It needs to be about communities, it needs to be about people and it needs to be about what is best for Scotland and the rest of the UK as a maritime nation. I just hope that the politicians can get their act together, think of the future, think of safeguarding jobs and investing in getting these Type 26 orders forward for order fulfilment so we can make a smooth transition. We may well lose some jobs in the interim, but keeping these yards open, that is the major issue, so people can get the opportunity to come back into employment.