Ferguson Marine, the state-owned shipyard on the Clyde, is to cut around a quarter of its workforce, prompting accusations that the SNP government has mismanaged the business and undermined the jobs it nationalised the company to protect. Critics argue the redundancies are a direct consequence of the ferry-building fiasco at the yard, which has been plagued by lengthy delays, spiralling costs and years of political controversy since ministers took it into public ownership.

The cuts are expected to affect a substantial portion of the yard's staff, reviving criticism of the SNP's handling of the Ferguson Marine project and the wider CalMac ferry contracts, which have run years behind schedule and massively over budget. Opposition politicians say the job losses undercut the government's original justification for nationalisation, which was to safeguard shipbuilding employment on the Clyde, and are demanding answers over the future viability of the yard.