The Navy has told the company that if the cuts go ahead they would have to scrap planned work on 13 ships.

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Owners, he argues, will be forced to scrap older, single-hull ships at an accelerating rate because of tougher environmental regulations.

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Mike Hancock, Liberal Democrat MP for Portsmouth South, said he believed it would be unlikely the ships, which were decommissioned in 2011, could be saved from the scrap yard.

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