Worst-hit site will be Brough in east Yorkshire – where Hawk and Harrier jets were built – whose fate was sealed despite appeals from David Cameron and Ed Miliband
BAE Systems, Britain's biggest defence contractor, has brushed aside a plea by David Cameron to save high-level manufacturing jobs and is proceeding to axe around 2,000 posts.
The worst-hit plant will be Brough in East Yorkshire, where BAE is to make 750 compulsory redundancies and end manufacturing – a move described by trade unions as a "disgraceful dereliction of duty".
The future of manufacturing at the facility – which built Hawk jets used by the Red Arrows display team – was put in doubt last September, along with others around the UK. Workers and MPs including the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, campaigned to save Brough, while the prime minister promised defence staff he would put their case at a meeting with BAE boss Ian King.
But the company said on Thursday it expected to save only about 1,000 of the 3,000 jobs it had targeted in the autumn. A spokeswoman said BAE had done all it could to transfer workers around the company and use a voluntary redundancy scheme to mitigate the cuts demanded by a downturn in UK, US and other national defence spending.
"BAE Systems has informed employees that it has now concluded consultation on the business proposal to potentially end manufacturing at Brough," the company said in a statement. "This is due to no viable and practical alternative being found despite the extensive and meaningful consultation that has taken place with the trade unions and executive representatives."
The company originally intended to cut 900 jobs at the plant, but 50 staff have been redeployed and 100 have taken voluntary severance.
Brough has been operating as a plane-building plant since 1916, when it was owned by the Blackburn Aeroplane & Motor Company. Among the famous products developed and constructed there were the Harrier jump jet and the Buccaneer, used by the Royal Navy as recently as the first Gulf war.
BAE said the timing of cuts elsewhere would depend on various factors such as consultation periods. It said Hawks would be made in Lancashire and the company was still winning plane contracts in countries such as India, Oman and Australia.
The Unite union said it was meeting with lawyers to pursue legal action on behalf of the workers at the site.
"BAE Systems has displayed a disgraceful dereliction of duty to a world-class workforce," said Ian Waddell, from Unite. "Management has chosen to take the most extreme decision by unnecessarily opting to close Brough entirely. This means the loss of vital manufacturing capabilities and skills."
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: "We will continue to work with the company, local authorities and local enterprise partnerships to make sure everything possible is done to help those individuals affected."