Harland & Wolff: Spanish shipbuilder Navantia saves Belfast shipyard

Reynolds said that the deal secures all four Harland & Wolff yards across the UK and guarantees jobs for “years not months in all four of those yards”.

He added that the deal was “a major vote of confidence in the UK from Navantia”.

Asked whether the government had sweetened the deal for Navantia by changing the terms of a contract to deliver three Royal Navy support ships, Reynolds said there had been a “minor revision” to the contract to include “more support” from the government.

The deal is to be presented as early fruits of the government’s post Brexit “reset”.

Gavin Robinson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said he was “delighted that this agreement has been reached which will secure the future of jobs in Belfast and in its other sites”.

The MP for East Belfast said that uncertainty over the future of the business had been “hugely unsettling… particularly for all the staff at the yard”.

Robinson added that Harland & Wolff “forms part of a wider defence sector that has huge potential for further growth in Northern Ireland”.

George Brash, Unite the union’s regional officer for the shipyard workers in Belfast, told BBC News NI that it was a “hugely positive move”, but that “the devil will be in the detail”.

He said Unite would now engage with the deal and work to ensure the delivery of guarantees both for jobs and continuity of employment.