North Ayrshire and Arran MP, Patricia Gibson, has secured a debate in Westminster on nuclear decommissioning workers who are facing cuts to their pensions,

Mrs Gibson stated that it was a 'betrayal' by the the UK Conservative government’s despite previous assurances given.

The debate, on Tuesday 21 March, will take place as the unions prepare to ballot their members on the outcome of recent talks with the UK Government.

Patricia Gibson said: "The focus will be on the undermining of guarantees made to these workers on pensions following privatisation of the nuclear estate under the Thatcher Government, which have been steadily eroded and are now set to be torn up altogether.

The local MP added: “Thousands of workers across the UK are employed on decommissioning sites such as Hunterston ‘A’ which are in the private sector, yet their pensions are being reviewed under the auspices of public sector pension reform. Earlier guarantees given to these workers can now be seen as not being worth the paper they were written on following significant reform of these pensions in the mid-2000s and the imposition of a Redundancy Payments Cap.

“There is no escaping that these wholly unnecessary attacks on workers’ pensions are part of a wider narrative that seeks to erode pensions across the board. These moves have to be resisted. Otherwise, who knows what group of workers will be next in the firing line?”