Naval base workers have accused Geoff Hoon of "tearing up" non-privatisation pledges made by his Labour predecessors.

Warship maintenance workers represented by the TGWU and Amicus unions have been angered by heavy job losses, set out in a Ministry of Defence announcement on Monday.

And Scottish National Party MPs, fearing job losses will be concentrated in Scotland, are furious because the redundancies were given in a written parliamentary answer from armed forces minister Adam Ingram - ruling out questions and debate from the floor of the Commons.

UK-wide, the government's warship maintenance review set out 750 job losses and the transfer of 3000 jobs to the private sector, a move that will save the government £300 million.

In his written answer MoD minister Ingram said the jobs would be lost at naval bases in Portsmouth, Devonport and the Clyde but refused to specify how many jobs would go at each base, conceding a "significant proportion" would go on the Clyde.

Claiming that the figure of 750 was a "worst case scenario", he hoped there would be few compulsory redundancies. "It is up to the naval dockyard companies themselves to decide what the structure of the workforce should. To give figures in a precise way is not possible," he said.

TGWU national organiser Jack Dromey has attacked the government for reneging on promises made by previous Labour's defence secretaries and shadows, Lord Robertson and David Clark.

Trade unions have reissued a 1995 press statement by Clark branding privatisation of Clyde naval bases as "daft and dangerous" and vowing to scrap any moves to hand maintenance work over to private companies.

"The decision to lift government exemption form privatisation was daft and dangerous. No responsible minister should take risks with the security of Britain's most sensitive defence establishment," he said before Labour came to power in 1997.

Dromey condemned the Ministry of Defence for reviving the Conservatives' "private good, public bad argument".

"David Clark branded privatisation of the Clyde bases as ' daft and dangerous.' Under a Labour government, he said, security will come first. George Robertson re-affirmed that commitment and praised our members for their co-operation in change. Geoff Hoon should not tear up the promises of his predecessors this afternoon."

SNP defence spokesman Colin Campbell MSP said the government were singling out Scotland for job losses.

"Yet again, Scotland faces the prospect of losing out when it comes to defence. We already pay millions more towards defence than is spent in Scotland in return. Now, if these reports are true, we are to bear the brunt of job loses," he said.

"This government, with their ideological obsession with privatisation, is putting profit before people yet again and in defence that is foolishness of the worst kind."