Mohammad Sarwar: "Difficult period"

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Mr Sarwar said: "I met recently with shop stewards led by Govan convener Jamie Webster. We still hope to see cuts in the planned level of redundancies.

"I welcome this opportunity to be updated by yard bosses. Scottish MPs will continue to do everything we can to support the workers at Govan and Scotstoun.

"It is vital to get through this difficult period because shipbuilding on the Clyde is secure for the next decade.

"There are huge orders for the Ministry of Defence and apprentices should be starting very soon to learn their skilled trade in Govan."

Short-term gap

The long-term future of both Clyde shipyards when secured when BAE was awarded a Ministry of Defence contract to build four Type 45 destroyers.

But the company sited a short-term gap in its order book as the reason for making workers redundant.

It originally said that more than 1,000 workers, mainly in the Clyde yards, would be affected.

But co-operation between the Clyde Shipyards Task Force, which was set up by the government, the GMB union and BAE has seen the number almost halved.