MORE funding to increase the "woefully low" number of Royal Navy ships could help bring more jobs to Rosyth.

Dunfermline and West Fife MP Douglas Chapman has hit out at the MoD for failing to provide a timetable for a new frigate fleet, following the publication of a Commons Defence Select committee report. It warns that the UK does not have enough ships to defend itself.

Mr Chapman, a member of the committee, said: "The Royal Navy is in crisis. They need more ships desperately, including supply tankers.

"Rosyth is big enough to accommodate these so is ideally placed. Workers have already done a fantastic job on the carriers and should win any future contracts.

"But the MoD chose to build some tankers in a South Korean yard, which could not be further from UK waters.

That does not represent value to the taxpayer and the UK Government need to ask if it's true value for money to award contracts to South Korea at the expense of jobs and skills could have been preserved in West Fife."

He added: "When I raised concerns along with my SNP colleagues at Defence Questions in Parliament, we were treated with the usual Tory contempt.

"This scathing Defence Select Committee report highlights how their attempt to cast asking difficult, and valid, questions as grievance-mongering has backfired badly on the Government.

"A litany of broken promises to the men and women who work in our dockyards hasn't only impacted on these vital jobs and skills, it has left Scotland and the UK poorly defended."

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon this month said work on eight Royal Navy frigates would start next summer, safeguarding jobs until 2034.

But the Commons Defence Select committee are "not yet convinced" the MoD can deliver on its promises.

Mr Chapman said: "The SNP will do everything we can do to make the government listen to this report, come good on their infrastructure investment promises, and start taking the defence of Scotland seriously"

"We've seen many incursions by Russian ships into the North Sea and if we don't have enough ships to send a message to those who may wish to do us harm then that's a real concern.

"It takes a day or so for a ship to come from Portsmouth to our shores and that's not acceptable."