Labour accused of selling off Royal Navy ships for cheap despite spending millions on repair costs

Labour has been accused of selling off Royal Navy ships at a “knock-down price” despite spending millions of taxpayer money on the vessels.

In November, it was announced that HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark would be decommissioned as part of Labour’s £500million defence cut.

The scrapping has been done in order to combat the manpower crisis in the Royal Navy, freeing up more than 200 sailors for other ships.

Ministers also claimed that discarding older military equipment would help with the implementation of an incoming strategic defence review later this year.

Sources have now revealed that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has asked Brazil for just £20million for both ships despite spending ten times this on upkeep to the ships in the last 15 years.

Last month, Defence Minister Maria Eagle said that since 2010, £132.7million had been spent on refits to HMS Albion and Bulwark.

The decision to scrap the vessels is “short-sighted”, military sources said.

A senior military source told The Mail on Sunday: “I understand cuts need to be made, but if you keep selling off the capital assets what happens when you need to mount an operation?

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“We will be left sitting as a Third World navy while Brazil will field a fully integrated amphibious force.”

He added: “This is so short sighted. These ships are so versatile, they can be used for evacuations as well as delivery of humanitarian aid and, of course, for fighting a war.”

Shadow Armed Forces Minister Mark Francois said last night: “A few years ago, the Commons Defence Committee described the idea of disposing of these two key amphibious ships as ‘militarily illiterate’.

“Given how much the MoD has spent on refitting them in recent years, to suddenly flog them off at a knock-down price, is ‘financially illiterate’ as well.”

In November last year, Defence Secretary John Healey confirmed that six “outdated” projects across the Armed Forces will be axed.

The cuts extend beyond HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, including the Army’s Watchkeeper drone programme and HMS Northumberland.

Wave class tankers RFA Wave Knight and RFA Wave Ruler, 14 of the RAF’s oldest Chinooks and 17 Puma helicopters also face the chop.

Following the announcement, Defence Minister Luke Pollard found himself at the centre of a political storm, after it was revealed that he previously said that the two ships “play a key role in the Royal Navy’s ability to project power and deploy Royal Marines at scale”.

The Plymouth Sutton & Devonport MP had previously been a vocal critic of any Conservative plans to mothball the two amphibious assault ships.